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Donald Trump, his eldest son and his business organization are responsible for orchestrating a “sustained and repeated fraud” that significantly inflated the value of properties in Manhattan and Florida, as well as the value of golf courses in the United States and Scotland, New York . The judge ruled Tuesday.
Days before a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to go to trial, Judge Arthur Ngolon issued an order that said the former president and his associates committed fraud and charged Trump with fraud. Trump’s lawyers imposed sanctions and suspended Trump from the law. Organization’s business license in New York.
He said it would be up to a jury to determine further damages and whether the defendants were also responsible for publishing false financial statements and insurance fraud.
In a statement posted on the Truth Social platform, Trump said the ruling was a “terrifying reminder that radical left-wing Democrats will stop at nothing” to try to prevent him from being re-elected.
Trump’s lawyer Christopher Keith called the decision “outrageous” and “completely divorced from the facts and applicable law.”
He added that the ruling “seeks to nationalize one of America’s most successful corporate empires and seize control of private property, while acknowledging that there is no evidence of breach of contract, breach of contract, late payment or any complaint of harm”.
“We look forward to presenting the remainder of the case at trial,” James wrote on X.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2020, accuses Trump and his companies of inflating the value of assets by more than $2 billion to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in loans on favorable terms. The attorney general is seeking $250 million in damages and seeking to bar the defendants from ever again serving as officers or directors of companies in the state.
The ruling is a blow to the eponymous business empire that made Trump a household name and adds to the raft of legal woes he faces in his bid to become the Republican presidential nominee again next year. The 77-year-old has been charged in four separate criminal indictments on matters including withholding classified documents and trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In his decision, Ngolon agreed with the New York attorney general’s office that assets including a Park Avenue skyscraper and a Wall Street property were illegally inflated and further ordered the dissolution of several Trump businesses in New York. They were accused of continuing to “spread false and misleading information even after the court appointed an ombudsman last November.”
Lawyers for the Trumps, including former Florida Deputy Attorney General Kise, were also fined $7,500 each by the court.
The judge also rejected arguments by Trump’s lawyers that the banks involved, including Deutsche Bank, were not defrauded because the loans were eventually repaid in full.
Trump himself echoed this on social media, saying the “sophisticated Wall Street banks” from which he lent money were not harmed in any way. But Ngolon said that “the first principle of loan accounting is that as risk goes up, interest rates go up,” and lenders could make “more money” if the true value of Trump’s collateral was accounted for.
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