Trump hit with $354.9m penalty, 3-year ban in NY civil fraud case

Donald Trump must pay $354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth dupe lenders, a New York judge ruled on Friday, handing the former US president another legal setback in a civil case that imperils his real estate empire.

Justice Arthur Engoron, in a sharply worded decision issued after a contentious three-month trial in Manhattan, also banned Trump, who is running to regain the presidency this year, from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba vowed to appeal.

Engoron canceled his prior ruling from September ordering the “dissolution” of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate empire, saying on Friday that this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses.

Trump and the other defendants in the case, Engoron wrote in the ruling, “are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”

The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his family businesses of overstating his net worth by as much $3.6 billion a year over a decade to fool bankers into giving him better loan terms.

Trump, who faces criminal charges in four other cases, has called the lawsuit a political vendetta by James, a Democrat.

In posts on his social media platform, Trump called Engoron “crooked,” James “corrupt,” and the case against him “ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and a “WITCH HUNT.”

Engoron, who decided the case without a jury, also barred Trump and his companies named in the suit from applying for loans from any financial institution chartered in New York for three years, which could curtail his ability to obtain credit from major US banks.

The judge said Trump and his companies’ past run-ins with the law were part of the reason for the stiff penalties.