Donald Trump ordered to pay $354 million in New York civil fraud case
Donald Trump has called the affair a “fraud on me” and “political witchcraft.”
New York:
A New York judge on Friday ordered former US President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization to pay a fine of nearly US$355 million in a civil fraud case.
According to the 90-page decision, Trump is barred from serving as a company director in New York state for three years. His sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have also been asked to pay a fine of US $ 4 million each. He has been barred from acting as a director for two years.
A lawsuit that ended in January had already found Donald Trump and his two adult sons liable for a massive increase in the value of their properties by hundreds of millions of dollars. However, Trump and his sons have denied any wrongdoing.
Former US President Donald Trump has called the matter a “fraud on me” and “political witchcraft”. Judge Arthur Engoron’s decision came just weeks after closing arguments in the case following a month-long hearing in 2023.
The Attorney General’s Office had requested the judge to ask Donald Trump to pay US$370 million, which is US$16 million less than the judge’s order.
Former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was ordered to pay US$1 million. According to the order, Weisselberg was also banned from New York business for three years.
Additionally, Weisselberg and former Comptroller Jeffrey McConkey were banned for life from serving in the “financial control function” of any New York corporation or business entity.
The judge said the independent monitor he established to oversee Trump’s business would continue to serve for three years, in addition to establishing an “independent director of compliance.”
However, the judge reversed the decision before trial ordering the cancellation of the defendants’ business certificates. However, the judge said that the order could be renewed.
In a statement to The Hill, Trump attorney Alina Hubba called the verdict a “manifest injustice” and “the culmination of a multi-year, politically motivated witch hunt designed to ‘take down Donald Trump’ Was.”
As The Hill reports, the hearing in the case lasted more than two months, with testimony — at times stormy — from 40 witnesses, including the former US president, top Trump Organization officials and Trump’s adult children.
Trump’s financial situation could be dealt a major blow after the US$354.8 million verdict, and another US$83.3 million judgment against him for defaming author E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of Denied that he had sexually assaulted her decades earlier.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)