MARCH 25, 2024, UPDATE:
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court has agreed to hold off collection of former President Donald Trump’s more than $454 million civil fraud judgment — if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. If Trump does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing his assets while he appeals. Monday’s (March 25, 2024) order is a significant victory for Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee defends the real estate empire that vaulted him into public life. The development came just before New York Attorney General Letitia James was expected to initiate efforts to collect the judgment. Trump is hailing the ruling. He says he’ll post a bond, securities or cash to cover the $175 million sum.
MARCH 25, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump may be about to find out how New York state aims to collect over $457 million that he owes in his civil business fraud case. After state Attorney General Letitia James won the judgment, she opted not to enforce it during a legal time-out for Trump to ask an appeals court for a reprieve from paying up. That period ends Monday (March 25, 2024), though James could decide to allow Trump more time. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been trying to avoid having to post a bond for the entire sum in order to hold off collection while he appeals. Courts so far have said no.
FEBRUARY 26, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has appealed his $454 million New York civil fraud judgment, challenging a judge’s finding that he lied about his wealth as he grew the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.
The former president’s lawyers filed notices of appeal Monday (Feb. 26, 2024) asking the state’s mid-level appeals court to overturn Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16, 2024, verdict in Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit and reverse staggering penalties that threaten to wipe out Trump’s cash reserves.
Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers that they’re asking the appeals court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction.
Trump’s appeal won’t automatically halt enforcement of the judgment.
The Republican presidential front-runner has until March 25 to secure what’s known as a stay, a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals. Trump would receive an automatic stay if he puts up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. Trump’s lawyers could also ask the appeals court to grant a stay without obtaining a bond or with a bond for a lower amount.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a reporter’s questions Monday asking if he had posted an appeal bond or if he was in the process of securing one.
In a statement issued through a spokesperson, Trump lawyer Alina Habba addressed only the appeal itself, saying: “We trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious fine and take the necessary steps to restore the public faith in New York’s legal system.”
Messages seeking comment were left with the New York attorney general’s office and a spokesperson for the state’s court system.
Engoron found that Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals. Among other penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, to do business.
The appeal ensures that the legal fight over Trump’s business practices will persist into the thick of the presidential primary season, and likely beyond, as he tries to clinch the Republican presidential nomination in his quest to retake the White House.
If upheld, Engoron’s ruling will force Trump to give up a sizable chunk of his fortune. Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties, but with interest the total has grown to nearly $454 million. That total will increase by nearly $112,000 per day until he pays.
Trump maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year that he had about $400 million in cash, in addition to properties and other investments. James, a Democrat, told ABC News that if Trump is unable to pay, she will seek to seize some of his assets.
Trump’s appeal was expected. Trump had vowed to appeal and his lawyers had been laying groundwork for months by objecting frequently to Engoron’s handling of the trial.
Trump said Engoron’s decision, the costliest consequence of his recent legal troubles, was “election interference” and “weaponization against a political opponent.” Trump complained he was being punished for “having built a perfect company, great cash, great buildings, great everything.”
Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise said after the verdict that the former president was confident the appeals court “will ultimately correct the innumerable and catastrophic errors made by a trial court untethered to the law or to reality.”
If the decision stands, Habba said, “it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business.”
Trump wasn’t able to appeal the decision immediately because the clerk’s office at Engoron’s courthouse had to file paperwork known as a judgment to make it official. That was done on Friday, starting a 30-day window for Trump to pay up or file an appeal and seek a stay.
If Trump were to pay the penalty at this stage instead of obtaining a stay, the money would be held in a court escrow account while the appeal plays out. If the court overturns the verdict, the money would be returned to Trump.
During the trial, Trump’s lawyers accused Engoron of “tangible and overwhelming” bias. They’ve also objected to the legal mechanics of James’ lawsuit. Trump contends the law she sued him under is a consumer-protection statute that’s normally used to rein in businesses that rip off customers.
Trump’s lawyers have already gone to the Appellate Division at least 10 times to challenge Engoron’s prior rulings, including during the trial in an unsuccessful bid to reverse a gag order and $15,000 in fines for violations after Trump made a disparaging and false social media post about a key court staffer.
Trump’s lawyers have long argued that some of the allegations are barred by the statute of limitations, contending that Engoron failed to comply with an Appellate Division ruling last year that he narrow the scope of the trial to weed out outdated allegations.
The Appellate Division could either uphold Engoron’s verdict, reduce or modify the penalty or overturn the decision entirely. If Trump is unsuccessful at the Appellate Division, he can ask the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, to consider taking his case.
The appeal is one of Trump’s many legal challenges. He has been indicted on criminal charges four times in the last year. He is accused in Georgia and Washington, D.C., of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. In Florida, he is charged with hoarding classified documents.
He is scheduled to go on trial March 25 in Manhattan for falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels on his behalf.
In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. That’s on top of the $5 million a jury awarded Carroll in a related trial last year.
FEBRUARY 17, 2024:
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge has ordered Donald Trump and his companies to pay $355 million in penalties. The judge found they engaged in a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated his wealth. Trump won’t have to pay out the money immediately as an appeals process plays out, but the verdict still is a stunning setback for the former president. He also was barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years or from getting a loan from banks registered in the state. Trump calls the verdict a “Complete and Total sham.” Trump Organization Executive Vice Presidents Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump each were ordered to pay $4 million.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2023:
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has ruled (Sept. 26, 2023) that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House. Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing. Engoron’s ruling resolves the key claim in Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, but six others remain. James is seeking $250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump doing business in New York, his home state.
Extended version:
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge ruled Tuesday (Sept. 26, 2023) that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House, and he ordered some of the former president’s companies removed from his control and dissolved.
Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.
Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee Trump Organization operations.
If not successfully appealed, the order would strip Trump of his authority to make strategic and financial decisions over some of his key properties in the state.
Trump, in a series of statements, railed against the decision, calling it “un-American” and part of an ongoing plot to damage his campaign to return to the White House.
“My Civil rights have been violated, and some Appellate Court, whether federal or state, must reverse this horrible, un-American decision,” he wrote on his Truth Social site. He insisted his company had “done a magnificent job for New York State” and “done business perfectly,” calling it “A very sad Day for the New York State System of Justice!”
Trump’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, said they would appeal, calling the decision “completely disconnected from the facts and governing law.”
Engoron’s ruling, days before the start of a non-jury trial in James’ lawsuit, is the strongest repudiation yet of Trump’s carefully coiffed image as a wealthy and shrewd real estate mogul turned political powerhouse.
Beyond mere bragging about his riches, Trump, his company and key executives repeatedly lied about them on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance costs, Engoron found.
Those tactics crossed a line and violated the law, the judge said, rejecting Trump’s contention that a disclaimer on the financial statements absolved him of any wrongdoing.
“In defendants’ world: rent regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party casting responsibility on another party exonerates the other party’s lies,” Engoron wrote in his 35-page ruling. “That is a fantasy world, not the real world.”
Manhattan prosecutors had looked into bringing criminal charges over the same conduct but declined to do so, leaving James to sue Trump and seek penalties that aim to disrupt his and his family’s ability to do business.
Engoron’s ruling, in a phase of the case known as summary judgment, resolves the key claim in James’ lawsuit, but several others remain. He’ll decide on those claims and James’ request for $250 million in penalties at a trial starting Oct. 2. Trump’s lawyers have asked an appeals court for a delay.
“Today, a judge ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in years of financial fraud,” James said in a statement. “We look forward to presenting the rest of our case at trial.”
Trump’s lawyers, in their own summary judgment bid, had asked the judge to throw out the case, arguing that there wasn’t any evidence the public was harmed by Trump’s actions. They also argued that many of the allegations in the lawsuit were barred by the statute of limitations.
Engoron, noting that he had rejected those arguments earlier in the case, equated them to the plot of the film “Groundhog Day.” He fined five defense lawyers $7,500 each as punishment for “engaging in repetitive, frivolous” arguments, but denied James’ request to sanction Trump and other defendants.
James, a Democrat, sued Trump and the Trump Organization a year ago, accusing them of routinely inflating the value of assets like skyscrapers, golf courses and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, padding his bottom line by billions.
Engoron found that Trump consistently overvalued Mar-a-Lago, inflating its value on one financial statement by as much as 2,300%. The judge also rebuked Trump for lying about the size of his Manhattan apartment. Trump claimed his three-story Trump Tower penthouse was nearly three times its actual size, valuing it at $327 million.
“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.
On X in the wake of the ruling, Eric Trump insisted his father’s claims about Mar-a-Lago were correct, writing that the Palm Beach estate is “speculated to be worth well over a billion dollars making it arguably the most valuable residential property in the country.” He called the ruling and the lawsuit “an attempt to destroy my father and kick him out of New York.”
Under the ruling, limited liability companies that control some of Trump’s key properties, such as 40 Wall Street, will be dissolved and authority over how to run them handed over to a receiver. Trump would lose his authority over whom to hire or fire, whom to rent office space to, and other key decisions.
“The decision seeks to nationalize one of the most successful corporate empires in the United States and seize control of private property all while acknowledging there is zero evidence of any default, breach, late payment or any complaint of harm,” Kise said after the decision.
James’ lawsuit is one of several legal headaches for Trump, the Republican front-runner in next year’s election. He has been indicted four times in the last six months — accused in Georgia and Washington, D.C., of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss, in Florida of hoarding classified documents, and in Manhattan of falsifying business records related to hush money paid on his behalf.
The Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud last year in an unrelated criminal case for helping executives dodge taxes on perks such as apartments and cars. The company was fined $1.6 million. One executive, Trump’s longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and served five months in jail.
James’ office previously sued Trump for misusing his charitable foundation to further his political and business interests. Trump was ordered to give $2 million to charity as a fine while his own charity, the Trump Foundation, was shut down.
Comments