Fraud Charge $355 million fine!
New York, Feb. 16 (EFE) –
Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) will have to pay a fine of more than $350 million for several cases of fraud in his family business, the Trump Organization, a judge ruled Friday in New York.
Judge Arthur Engoron also restricted the former president’s ability to do business in the state for the next three years.
Trump is expected to appeal the decision, but so far he has not responded on his social media platform, Truth Social, where he usually posts his comments.
The fine is divided into several charges: $355 million against Trump and his companies, $4 million each against his two eldest sons, and a former company executive $1 million.
All of them were accused by prosecutors of inflating asset figures to gain advantages with insurers and banks.
Engoron had already found them all liable for fraud in a summary judgment before the civil trial began.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” the judge wrote in his decision.
The New York State Attorney’s Office, led by Public Advocate Letitia James, had requested that Trump and the two accused executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConey, be barred “for life” from participating in real estate or holding directorships in “any business or legal entity” in the state of New York.
Engoron ordered that Weisselberg and McConney may never have financial control of any business of any kind in New York.
He also determined Trump may not serve as a director of any business or legal entity in the state for three years or borrow from any entity registered in New York for the same period.
This will have an immediate impact, for example, on Trump Tower, a complex of hotels, restaurants, and shopping malls on New York’s iconic Fifth Avenue.
However, the judge decided not to ratify the liquidation of the former president’s businesses, which he had ordered before the trial began, a decision that was suspended by an appeals court.
The verdict, eagerly awaited by the US media, had been delayed for more than a week, as it was expected to be announced at the end of January.
The trial lasted about two months, and the charges related to the manipulation of assets in the financial documents of the Trump Organization to obtain advantages with insurers and banks were settled. EFE
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