‘We’ll take your towers’
Trump told to pay up or risk seizure of New York assets
Donald Trump will have some of his prized buildings in New York seized if he fails to pay his $US355m ($541m) fine for fraud, even while he is appealing against it, the state’s attorney general has warned.
Letitia James said bailiffs would be sent in if Mr Trump did not pay into an escrow account while challenging the penalty levied on him and his companies.
Mr Trump meanwhile complained that his treatment in New York was “a form of Navalny” during a televised Fox News town hall event, comparing himself to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died last week.
The fine was accompanied by backdated interest of 9 per cent per year.
Mr Trump was found liable for defrauding banks and investors over years to secure favourable financing.
Ms James, an elected Democrat, said she was “very confident” her case would not be overturned on appeal and said she had her eye on Mr Trump’s 40 Wall St skyscraper if he failed to pay up.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” Ms James told ABC News.
Mr Trump accuses Ms James of campaigning for office with a pledge of “I will get Trump”.
In his Fox News town hall he called Arthur Engoron, the judge in the case, a “nut job” and said “it is all coming out of the White House ... it’s election interference”.
Despite Mr Trump’s assertions that he is “totally innocent” because his loans were repaid, Ms James said that “financial frauds are not victimless crimes”.
“He engaged in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight oversight, the variations are wildly exaggerated and the extent of the fraud was staggering,” Ms James said.
“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers and, yes, I look at 40 Wall St each and every day,” added Ms James, whose Manhattan office is nearby.
“If average New Yorkers went into a bank and submitted false documents, the government would throw the book at them, and the same should be true for former presidents.”
Mr Trump claims that the ruling will drive away business from New York City.
“Last I checked, tourism is up, Wall Street is doing just fine,” Ms James said.