(Breitbart/TJV NEWS) Judge Arthur Engoron fined former Donald Trump and the Trump Organization on Friday in civil a fraud case for more than $350 million and barred him from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sought to essentially bankrupt Trump by calling for a $370 million fine and a lifetime of from the real estate industry in New York State. James claimed Trump committed financial fraud.
Trump plans to appeal the ruling. “This is a case that should have never been brought, and I think we should be entitled to damages,” Trump said during closing arguments.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley called the ruling “confiscatory, extreme, and abusive.”
The judgment is the second this year in which Trump was found guilty and required to millions. In writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him, the judge orderedTrump to pay $83.3 million.
Zero Hedge pointed out a Bloomberg report which strengthens the “with hunt ” argument.
During the trial, Deutsche Bank executive David Williams, who directly worked on at least one of several loans obtained by Trump over several decades, testified that it’s “atypical, but not entirely unusual” for a bank to internally slash a client’s stated asset values by 50% and approve a loan anyway, as they did with Trump, Bloomberg reported in November.
“It just depends on the circumstances,” said Williams, a managing director at the bank.
Deutsche Bank, which loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump for properties in Miami, Chicago and Washington, cut his stated net worth in 2011 and 2012 from about $4.2 billion to $2.3 billion, according to internal bank credit memos. The same documents indicated the bank approved the loans anyway because it expected them to generate a profitbased on Trump’s history of successful developments and other criteria.
Trump, who denies wrongdoing and claims the case is politically motivated, is calling to the stand this week four current and former Deutsche Bank employees — including the family’s former private banker Rosemary Vrablic — as part of his defense case, seeking to flip the script on the state’s version of events. -Bloomberg
President Trump responded via social media to the Judge’s decision:
“A Crooked New York State Judge, working with a totally Corrupt Attorney General who ran on the basis of “I will get Trump,” before knowing anything about me or my company, has just fined me $355 Million based on nothing other than having built a GREAT COMPANY. ELECTION INTERFERENCE. WITCH HUNT (more to follow!),” said Trump in a post to Truth Social.
“The Justice System in New York State, and America as a whole, is under assault by partisan, deluded, biased Judges and Prosecutors. Racist, Corrupt A.G. Tish James has been obsessed with “Getting Trump” for years, and used Crooked New York State Judge Engoron to get an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business. I helped New York City during its worst of times, and now, while it is overrun with Violent Biden Migrant Crime, the Radicals are doing all they can to kick me out….”
And according to the former president, Engoron conspired with New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“This Election Interference and tyrannical Abuse of Power by a Crooked Judge and Crooked Attorney General cannot be tolerated. My case was already won in the Appellate Division, and more than 80% of the frivolous claims were wiped out. Yet, as I suspected, and in order to hurt me and the Republican Party politically, Crooked and Corrupt Judge Arthur Engoron ignored his loss at the Appellate Division, and came up with an outrageous $355 Million Dollar fine against me. Using a statute that has never been applied like this before, the Corrupt Judge conspired with the Crooked Attorney General, Letitia James, and punished a liquid and beautiful Corporate Empire that started in New York, and has been successful all around the world…..
“There were no victims, and not one person testified there was any fraud. The actual witnesses established my Net Worth exceeded that reported in my Financial Statements as those Statements never included my most valuable Asset – the TRUMP Brand. The Highly Respected Expert Witness said my Financial Statements were among the best he has ever seen. I paid over $300 Million Dollars in taxes to New York City and State, and they want me gone. They are Crazed Lunatics who are destroying everything in their way. It all starts with Biden’s attacks on his Political Opponent!”
Trump also said he’d appeal Engoron’s decision.
“The actual bankers who were involved in the loan transactions testified I was a highly sought-after “whale” of a client with “one of the strongest personal balance sheets” they had ever seen, and I was overqualified for the loans. Those banks earned more than $100 Million Dollars in profits doing business with me and my companies. But to justify his crazed attack on me and my family, this biased, Trump Hating Judge, ignored all this, and even said Michael Cohen told the truth, although Cohen admitted to lying hundreds of times, and lied right in front of the Judge during the trial. This shocking and corrupt Interference in the Free Markets for political gain places every New York business transaction at risk. We must make sure Corrupt Politicians and Judges cannot continue to abuse the power of their office, and violate the public trust. We have already won, and will continue the fight on appeal!”
NBC News reported specifics of the case:
James contended the defendants used the inflated financial statements to obtain bank loans and insurance policies at rates he otherwise wouldn’t have been entitled to and “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.”
…Among the examples cited as fraud by the attorney general’s office during the trial was Trump valuing his triplex home in Trump Tower in New York City at three times its actual size and value, as well as including a brand value to increase the valuation of his golf courses on the financial statements, which explicitly said brand values were not included.
Another example pointed to by the attorney general clearly got under his skin — a dispute over the value of Mar-a-Lago, his social club and residence in Florida. Trump’s financial statements between 2011 and 2021 valued Mar-a-Lago at between $426 million and $612 million, while the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the property’s market value to be between $18 million and $27 million during the same timeframe.
The judge fined Donald Trump’s children as well, CNN reported:
Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, liable for a host of civil fraud counts in New York, including issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records and conspiracy.
He ordered them each to pay $4 million for their personal profits from the fraud.
In addition, Engoron fined former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg $1 million.
James’ case against Trump is just one of many legal challenges the former president faces. Local and federal prosecutors filed four indictments against the president.
The indictments account for 91 counts: 34 counts in New York, with a maximum penalty of 136 years; 40 counts in Miami, with up to 450 years; four counts in Washington, DC, with up to 55 years; and 13 counts in Georiga, with up to 76.5 years.
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is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
