Former US president Donald Trump and his real-estate company experienced a major defeat in New York’s civil fraud suit over his inflated asset valuations, after a judge barred him from running any business in the state for three years and ordered US$364 million in penalties plus interest.
The 92-page verdict issued on Friday by Justice Arthur Engoron in Manhattan is a significant victory for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who wrote on social media after the decision that with interest the fine tops US$450 million.
Engoron’s ruling is a threat to Trump’s real-estate empire and the latest legal setback as the Republican frontrunner campaigns to return to the White House. His two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, were also found liable and barred from being officers of a company in New York for two years.
Photo: AP
During a three-month trial, James said that Donald Trump had inflated asset values on annual financial documents for more than a decade to dupe Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders into giving him better terms on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again,” Engoron wrote. “They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”
Trump is sure to appeal, potentially dragging out a final resolution of the case well beyond the November presidential election. Even if he appeals, he would be required to put up a large chunk of the damages in the form of an escrow or bond.
The judge also found former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and former company comptroller Jeffrey McConney liable in the suit.
The fine was mostly based on the US$168 million Trump saved by getting lower interest rates on four loans by lying about his wealth.
It also includes the US$127 million profit from the Old Post Office hotel deal in Washington and US$60 million from the sale of Ferry Point golf course in New York, which the state said he would not have been able to purchase without inflating the value of his assets.
The sum also includes the return of bonuses paid to employees who participated in the fraud.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS