NY Fines Trump $354.9M, Bans Business

Attorney General Letitia James sought $370m  and a ban on Trump and other defendants from doing business in New York.

Former US president Donald Trump has been fined $354.9m (£281.6m) after a civil fraud trial in New York.

The judge also banned Trump from running businesses in New York for three years. His sons, Eric and Donald Jr, received similar bans for two years.

Trump and the Trump Organisation were also banned from applying for loans from any New York financial institution for three years.

Alina Habba, his lawyer, said after the hearing that the ruling was a “manifest injustice… plain and simple”.

Judge Arthur Engoron had already ruled in an earlier judgement that the former president inflated his wealth on financial statements given to banks, insurers and other institutions to make deals and secure loans. New York Attorney General Letitia James sought $370m and a ban on Trump and other defendants from doing business in the state in the civil fraud case.

Such a huge penalty could leave Trump’s real estate empire in tatters – an image that helped lead him to fame and the White House in 2016.

Judge Engoron also cancelled his prior ruling from September ordering the “dissolution” of companies that control areas of Trump’s real estate empire, saying this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee the businesses.

In the ruling, the judge wrote that Trump and the other defendants in the case “are incapable of admitting the error of their ways”. The judge called the fraud at the heart of the trial a “venial sin, not a mortal sin”, adding in his written verdict: “They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff.

“But the frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience.

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. Instead, they adopt a ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”

Don Jr and Eric Trump were each ordered to pay $4m by the judge

In response, Trump’s legal team claimed the testimony during the trial “proved there was no wrongdoing, no crime, and no victim” and added an appeal would be launched. During the trial, Trump launched a six-minute diatribe from the witness stand and was ordered not to disparage court staff – but defied the judge and was fined $15,000 for twice violating the order.

The Republican presidential front-runner testified in November that his financial statements actually understated his net worth and that banks did their own research and were happy with his business.

During closing arguments in January this year, he claimed the case was a “fraud on me”.

Before the trial, Judge Engoron ruled on James’ main claim, finding that Trump’s financial statements were fraudulent.

As punishment, the judge ordered some of his companies should be removed from his control and dissolved, but due to an appeal, another court has put that on hold.

Because it is a civil case, rather than criminal, there was no threat of Trump being jailed.

However, four of the investigations into the former president are on criminal grounds, including one in New York related to alleged hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump has also been charged in Florida over his handling of classified documents after leaving office and in Washington and Georgia for his bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.

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