Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are asking the New York Court of Appeals to overturn a $454 million judgment handed down to him after a judge found him liable for business fraud.
Trump's lawyers appeared in a Manhattan court Thursday in an appeals court seeking to vacate a civil fraud judgment of $354 million, plus $100 million in interest accrued when the judgment was handed down earlier this year. Coming.
In February, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump, his company, and its executives, including his sons Eric and Don Jr., defrauded banks by inflating Trump's assets in financial statements. , the court ruled that the company had allowed the company to obtain loans on favorable terms in order to make a profit.
The former president insisted he did nothing wrong.
Trump's lawyers plan to argue that the punishment was excessive and that the charges came too late.
In briefs filed with the Appellate Division in July, Trump's lawyers argued that the financial statements he submitted to banks actually understated his assets and that no lender could provide them with a It also claimed that there was no evidence of any losses.
Lawyers also accused Democratic Attorney General Letitia James of targeting political opponents.
“This politically motivated prosecution seeks to punish purely appropriate and lawful conduct,” Trump's lawyers wrote.
Lawyers for Mr. James's office said in an August response that the law under which Mr. Trump was charged does not allow banks to make losses or rely on Mr. Trump's misleading statements in deciding to lend to Mr. Trump. He said that he did not require any evidence that the
The appeals court is expected to rule on the issue sometime after the Nov. 5 election. If the court rules against Trump, the former president could appeal to New York's highest court and possibly the Supreme Court, but a final ruling would not be made until 2026 at the latest. It will be.
The hearing comes as President Trump is aware that his net worth has fluctuated greatly due to fluctuations in the stock price of his tech company, Trump Media and Technology Group.
The company's stock price has fallen 80% since March.
Trump, who owns nearly 60% of the company's outstanding shares, saw his net worth increase by about $6 billion when the stock first listed on the Nasdaq.
However, the subsequent decline in the stock price has reduced the value of his stake in the company, and it is now worth about $1.7 billion.
President Trump and several other executives were free to sell their stocks last week after a six-month lock-up period that prevented them from selling them ended.
However, the former president's net worth is Rating by Bloomberg Billionaires Index 4.1 billion, and has made it clear that it has no intention of selling its holdings.
The $454 million judgment has ballooned to $477 million with interest that has accumulated since the judgment was entered, making it President Trump's largest debt, according to disclosure documents filed last month with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. It has become.
The documents showed Trump owed $160 million in mortgages he received from Ladder Capital Finance LLC for the 40 Wall Street skyscraper.
Mr. Trump also took out mortgage loans totaling $225 million from Axos Bank for Trump Tower and the Trump National Doral Golf Course.
Mr. Trump's other debts include an $83.3 million civil judgment against him following a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll.
Trump is also closing in on a $5 million judgment against Carroll in a sexual abuse lawsuit against the former president.
Trump's legal debts total nearly $600 million.
In May, Trump was convicted of a felony after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of all 34 counts of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to porn actors. He became the first former president.
with post wire
