Posted on 02/16/24
| News Source: NBC News
The judge who presided over a civil business fraud trial against Donald Trump and his company has issued his decision in the case.
Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president and the Trump Organization to pay over $350 million in damages, and bars Trump "from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years."
He also continued "the appointment of an Independent Monitor" and ordered "the installation of an Independent Director of Compliance" for the company.
The judgment is the second this year against Trump after he was hit last month with an $83.3 million verdict in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against him. The former president could also face four criminal trials this year as his presidential campaign barrels toward the November election, with the first set to begin in New York state court on March 25th.
New York Attorney General Letitia James had been seeking $370 million from Trump, his company and its top executives, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, alleging "repeated and persistent fraud" that included falsifying business records and financial statements. James had argued those financial statements were at times exaggerated by as much as $2.2 billion.
James contended the defendants used the inflated financial statements to obtain bank loans and insurance policies at rates he otherwise wouldn’t have been entitled to and "reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains."
Trump had maintained his financial statements were conservative, and has called the AG's allegations politically motivated and a "fraud on me."
"This is a case that should have never been brought, and I think we should be entitled to damages," Trump told reporters when he attended closing arguments in the case on Jan. 11.