NNew York Judge Arthur Engoron on Friday fined the former president more than $350 million against Donald Trump and his real estate company, and ordered him and his adult sons to become part of New York’s major cities for years to come. He handed down a harsh sentence, banning him from the company. The fraud verdict was a stunning blow to a man who considered himself a successful real estate tycoon and built his political career on that fame.
Here are five things we learned from Friday’s ruling.
Engoron paid the fine sought by prosecutors.
Engoron fined the defendants $364 million, close to the $370 million the attorney general’s office requested when it rested the case in January.
The bulk of the fine is $168 million from interest savings Mr. Trump made on several loans and $126 million from profits he made when he sold a former post office building in Washington. It comes from two calculations.
Mr. Engoron said in his ruling that Mr. Trump profited by falsifying financial statements and paying low interest rates in conjunction with financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank, which believed Mr. Trump had a high net worth. .
Expert witness Michael McCarty, who testified at the prosecution’s trial, estimated that Trump saved $168 million in lower interest rates by inflating the value of his net worth. Engoron agreed to this amount, saying, “Thanks to the defendant’s fraud, we no longer have to pay higher interest.”
An additional $126 million in fines was calculated based on the “ill-gotten gains” President Trump received from the sale of the former Post Office building in 2022. President Trump was able to use inflated money to purchase a building that he converted into a hotel. Financial statements.
“Like many of President Trump’s real estate transactions, the Old Post Office contract was obtained using a false SFC (no false SFC, no transaction),” Engoron wrote in his verdict. It pointed out.
The judge also fined Don Jr. and Eric Trump individually about $4 million for their personal profits from the sale of the Old Post Office building.
The final $1 million was in fines against President Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Allen Weisselberg, who was paid $2 million in a separation agreement with the Trump Organization. Mr. Engoron said Mr. Weisselberg “plays a key role in almost every fraud case, so it would be unfair to allow him to cover up the defendant’s wrongdoing and profit from it.”
Engoron did not permanently ban President Trump from New York real estate industry
Prosecutors had asked Engoron to permanently ban Trump from the New York real estate industry, similar to how entrepreneur and “pharma brother” Martin Shkreli was banned from the pharmaceutical industry in 2022.
Mr. Engoron ultimately barred Mr. Trump from directing his company or any New York-based company for three years, avoiding a lifetime ban. Trump’s sons, Eric Jr. and Don Jr., were banned from running the company for two years.
President Trump and the Trump Organization were also directed not to apply for loans from financial companies registered in New York for three years.
Engoron also reversed a pretrial judgment that revoked the Trump Organization’s operating certificate, a move that would have effectively stopped it from continuing to do business in New York.
In Friday’s ruling, Mr. Engoron reversed that initial ruling, saying it was “no longer necessary” to dismantle parts of Trump’s empire and ordering the appointment of two court monitors to oversee the operation. Stated. Barbara Jones, a former judge, and an independent compliance director to ensure “appropriate financial and accounting practices.”
As the case heads to the Court of Appeals, some legal experts said: asked openly Whether Engoron had the authority to order the cancellation. The latest move is a departure from that debate.
Engoron said in its ruling that the company will be supervised by two court-appointed monitors who will monitor “significant activities that could lead to fraud” and that “revocation of its operating license will no longer be possible.” It’s not necessary.”
Since 2022, Jones has overseen the company’s financial reporting as a court-appointed monitor. Engoron has decided to remain in his post for at least three more years with more authority.
The Trump Organization will now be required to obtain prior approval before submitting financial information to third parties. Additionally, Engoron said Jones has one month to propose “specific powers that he believes are necessary to keep the defendant honest.”
Engoron thought Trump and his adult children lacked credibility on the stand.
Donald Trump testified for hours to convince a New York judge to acquit him of financial fraud. Engoron didn’t buy it.
In his 92-page ruling, Engoron wrote that the former president “barely answered questions and frequently interjected long, unrelated speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial.” He added: “His credibility was seriously undermined as he refused to answer questions directly or, in some cases, did not answer them at all.”
The judge was equally scathing in his assessment of evidence provided by Trump’s eldest sons, who have led the Trump Organization since their father entered the White House in 2017.
According to Engoron, Eric Trump repeatedly denied knowing before the incident that his father was preparing financial statements assessing the value of his assets and net worth, and said he did so on the witness stand. He said the trust had been “severely damaged.”
It wasn’t until confronted with “massive” documentary evidence that Eric Trump knew about the financial statements in August 2013 that he “reluctantly admitted that it appears he did.” ”, the judge noted.
Donald Trump Jr. claimed on stage that he did not know how or why Mr. Weisselberg left the business after he was indicted. The court found this “totally implausible,” Engoron said.
The veteran judge was impressed with Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, calling her “thoughtful, articulate,” even though the court found her “memory was inconsistent” during cross-examination with prosecutors. He described him as a calm and calm witness. Defense attorney “suspect”
Engoron was not persuaded by Trump’s claims.
In the ruling, the judge rejected several core arguments made by Trump’s lawyers during the trial.
First, financiers did not rely on financial statements when doing business with President Trump. This was an argument repeated throughout the trial, including when Trump and his sons took the witness stand.
Engoron wrote that the life of the loan is “based on the following numbers.” [the financial statements], lenders interpreted it in their own way. Engoron said.
Similar arguments have been made by Mr. Trump’s lawyers, who have often said that reported financial numbers are not material or material to the financial statements. President Trump expressed this in his own testimony, saying his lenders knew how wealthy he was and that was all that mattered.
In his ruling, Engoron seemed particularly frustrated by arguments about the importance of President Trump, saying, “When faced with clear evidence of misrepresentation, people always cry, “It’s not important.” We can do that.”
Mr. Trump and his sons, who appeared as witnesses, also argued that it was the job of outside accountants to make sure the financial statements were correct. But Engoron pointed out that “there is overwhelming evidence presented at trial that shows that: [the accounting firms] They relied on the Trump Organization to be truthful and accurate, and they had a right to do so, not the other way around.
“The reward for honesty stayed with the Trump Organization, not the accountant,” Engoron wrote.
A “pathological” lack of repentance
“Absolute perfection, including numbers, exists only in heaven,” Engoron wrote. “If the fraud is trivial, like most things in life, it doesn’t matter.”
But these misconducts were not just serious, he continued, “they jumped off the page and shocked the conscience.”
In the face of this, what really frustrated Mr. Engoron was Mr. Trump and his allies’ unwillingness to acknowledge nearly every mistake at the heart of the case. “Their complete lack of remorse and remorse borders on the pathological,” the judge wrote. “They are only accused of inflating property values to make more money.
“The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial crime, not a capital crime. The defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob banks at gunpoint. Donald Trump it’s not [the late fraudster] Bernard Madoff.
“Despite this, defendants are unable to admit the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ attitude where the evidence is a lie.” .
Even after the verdict, Trump remained defiant. Describing the ruling as a “complete and utter sham,” the former president falsely claimed a $354.9 million fine “based on nothing other than building a great company.”
