On Friday, a New York Judge ruled that former President Donald Trump and his companies must pay $354.8 million for fraudulent business practices. Furthermore, Trump will be banned from the New York real estate business for three years.
The Trump civil fraud trial lasted eleven weeks, and Judge Arthur Engoron ruled the decision Friday afternoon. Former President Trump and three of his adult children testified in the trial.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Donald Trump and his children in September 2022 for issuing fraudulent financial statements – including over 200 false and misleading asset values between 2011 and 2021 – to get better business deals. Between this ruling and the two verdicts in his trials against columnist E. Jean Carroll, Donald Trump now owes $443 million in fines.
In today’s ruling, Judge Engoron took direct aim at several of the Trump family’s core defenses. This includes the family’s claim that real estate appraisal is imprecise and subjective and that property valuations reflect nuances in the market that only sophisticated practitioners could understand.
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The 2024 Trump campaign is already fundraising off of the decision, saying that the judge’s ruling continues the “witch hunt” against him. In a statement released following the ruling, Trump’s legal team says “Today’s ruling is a gross miscarriage of justice. The Trump Organization has never missed any loan payment or been in default on any loan.”