When he is about to win the Republican candidacy for the presidency of the United States, former president Donald Trump was sentenced to pay compensation of $355 million for fraud in the financial statements of his companies.
This Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron read the sentence in the civil trial against the former president, his adult children and former executives of the Trump Organization over a tax fraud scheme in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
Engoron had already ruled that the businessman committed fraud by presenting misleading financial statements of his companies for about 11 years, to obtain loans and insurance with very favorable interests.
The ruling includes a ban on Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in that city for a period of three years, which would affect his run for the presidency, reportedThe Washington Post.
However, the judge ignored a previous ruling that ordered the dissolution of the former president's companies.
The civil lawsuit was filed in 2022 by New York Attorney General, Democrat Letitia James, who was demanding $370 million from Trump and the other defendants and a ban on doing business in the state.
"To borrow more and at lower rates, defendants presented blatantly false financial data to accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements," Ergorón wrote.
In a brief appearance early Friday in New York, James hailed the ruling as an example of equal treatment under the law: "I want to be clear, white-collar financial fraud is not a victimless crime," she said.
"When the powerful break the law and take more than their fair share, there are fewer resources available for working people," he stressed.
For his part, after learning of the ruling, Trump, the Republican Party's favorite for the presidential nomination, made a brief appearance from Mar-A-Lago, his residence in Florida, where he confirmed that he will appeal New York's decision.
The Republican candidate called the ruling "electoral interference" by the Democrats and defended their business practices: "If I were not a candidate, none of this would have happened, none of these lawsuits would have happened," he said.
Furthermore, he assured that no one was harmed by what he and his company did: "All the banks received their money, one hundred percent.They love Trump", said.
He emphasized that "there were no victims, because the banks made a lot of money. They made 100 million dollars."
The case accused Trump, his adult children and the Trump Organization of fraudulently manipulating property values to obtain profits on loans. In 2022 the former financial chief of the Trump Organization,Allen Weisselberg also pleaded guilty. of tax fraud, and promised to testify if requested during the trial the company was facing.
At least two years ago, the Trump Organization stopped sending inflated financial figures about his net worth to Deutsche Bank and other entities, but a court-appointed monitor said that only happened after he was sued and that other financial documents continued to contain errors and misrepresentations.
Although the bank offered Trump lower interest rates because he had agreed to personally guarantee the loans with his own money, it was unclear how much interest rates dropped because of the inflated figures.
Last September, Judge Engoron ruled that the state certificates needed to run many of his businesses in New York should be revoked.
Trump faces other lawsuits. This week the question of whether he enjoys immunity in federal criminal proceedings for allegedly having conspired toalter the outcome of the 2020 election and encouraged the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2020. The Court heard oral arguments on the so-called insurrection clause, which refers to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits anyone who participated in holding public office. of an insurrection.
In Atlanta, he faces charges along with more than a dozen others for their alleged attempts to alter the outcome of the state's elections; and in South Florida a case is pending over mishandling of classified documents, due to the files he took from the White House when his term ended and were seized at his Mar-a-Lago residence after refusing to return them to the government. .
In New York, the start of the trial on charges related to falsification of records to cover up money paid during the 2016 presidential campaign to porn actress Stormy Daniels was set for the end of March.
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