Judge orders Trump and his companies to pay $355 million in New York civil fraud

[Blkfyre]

https://ground.news/article/trump-ordered-to-pay-354m-and-banned-from-running-businesses-for-three-years-in-new-york-fraud-case_2c548b

A New York judge ordered Donald Trump and his companies on Friday to pay $355 million, finding 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.

If he's ultimately forced to pay, the magnitude of the penalty, on top of earlier judgments, could dramatically diminish his financial resources. And it undermines the image of a successful businessman that he's carefully tailored to power his unlikely rise from a reality television star to a onetime — and perhaps future — president.

Trump, who built his reputation as a real estate titan, 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 his native state.

Engoron concluded that Trump and his co-defendants "failed to accept responsibility" for their actions and that expert witnesses who testified for the defense "simply denied reality."

The judge called the civil fraud at the heart of the trial a "venial sin, not a mortal sin."

"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," wrote Engoron, a Democrat. He said their "complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological."

"The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience," the judge added.

This decision comes after a recent defamation-related damages ruling against Trump, bringing his total civil litigation penalties to over $400 million.

One down, MANY more to go...

[HighStepper]

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