Trump fined $355,000,000 in civil fraud case that could wipe out his fortune
A New York judge handed down a crushing verdict in ex-President Donald Trump's civil fraud case.
Former President Donald Trump and has been ordered to pay nearly $355million in his New York civil fraud case that could amount to all his cash.
Judge Arthur Engoron in his 92-page ruling on Friday afternoon also barred Trump from serving in top positions in any of his companies in New York for three years.
The judge also barred his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, from serving in the top roles and ordered them each to pay more than $4million for personally profiting from fraudulent business moves.
Engoron did not dissolve the Trump Organization’s business certificates, which he had mentioned in a summary judgement last year.
‘This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff,’ wrote Engoron, referring to the criminal American financier.
‘Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” posture that the evidence belies.’
New York Attorney General Letitia James had asked for $370million in her lawsuit accusing Trump and his family businesses of inflating his net worth by up to $3.6billion a year over the course of a decade to obtain more favorable loans.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, called Engoron’s verdict ‘manifest injustice – plain and simple’.
They will appeal the verdict ‘given the grave stakes’, Habba said. Trump will also request a stay on its enforcement until a decision in the process is reached.
‘It is the culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt that was designed to “take down Donald Trump,” before Letitia James ever stepped foot into the Attorney General’s office,’ stated Habba.
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