Trump ordered to pay over $350 million and barred from New York business
The decision by Justice Arthur Engoron caps a chaotic, yearslong case in which New York’s attorney general put Trump’s fantastical claims of wealth on trial.
NEW YORK — A New York judge Friday handed Donald Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of more than $350 million that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash.
The decision by Justice Arthur Engoron caps a chaotic, yearslong case in which New York’s attorney general put Trump’s fantastical claims of wealth on trial. With no jury, the power was in Engoron’s hands alone, and he came down hard: The judge delivered a sweeping array of punishments that threatens the former president’s business empire as he simultaneously contends with four criminal prosecutions and seeks to regain the White House.
Not only did Engoron impose a three-year ban preventing Trump from serving in top roles at any New York company, including his own, but the judge also applied that punishment to the former president’s adult sons for two years. One of the sons, Eric Trump, is the Trump Organization’s de facto CEO, and the ruling throws into doubt whether any member of the family can run the business in the near term.
Donald Trump will appeal the financial penalty — which could climb to $400 million or more once interest is added — but will have to either come up with the money or secure a bond within 30 days. The ruling will not render him bankrupt, because most of his wealth is tied up in real estate.
Trump will also most likely ask an appeals court to halt the restrictions on him and his sons from running the company while it considers the case.
But there might be little Trump can do to thwart one of the judge’s most consequential punishments: extending for three years the appointment of an independent monitor who will be the court’s eyes and ears at the Trump Organization, watching for fraud and second-guessing transactions that look suspicious.
Trump’s lawyers have railed against the monitor, Barbara Jones, saying that her work has already cost the business more than $2.5 million; the decision to extend her oversight of the privately held family company could enrage the Trumps, who see her presence as an irritant and an insult.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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