Donald Trump was sentenced on Friday February 16 in New York to a fine of nearly $355 million (329 million euros) for a series of financial frauds within his real estate empire, the Trump Organization. This unprecedented decision is accompanied by a three-year ban on all business management in New York State. It is a blow to the heritage of the former President of the United States, who aims to be re-elected in November.
The attorney general of this state, Letitia James, filed a complaint against him in October 2022 and led him, with his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, and their family group, to a lengthy civil trial for fraud, from October to January. Letitia James, elected Democrat, demanded $370 million in compensation from them.
The father and his sons Trump were accused of having colossally inflated during the 2010s the value of skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses around the world at the heart of the Trump Organization to obtain more favorable loans banks and better insurance conditions. Some assets, like the Trump Tower on the Ve Avenue, in Manhattan, are emblematic of the success of the businessman who entered politics on his image as a successful builder.
A lawyer for Donald Trump castigated Friday “a manifest injustice”. Alina Habba denounced on the social network a “unceasing persecution” of his client, and announced that the Republican billionaire would appeal this decision.
“Repeated” fraud
Even before the trial, Judge Engoron, with whom Donald Trump has execrable relations, had judged the fraud to be constituted. The magistrate considered that the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Letitia James presented “conclusive evidence that between 2014 and 2021 the defendants [avaient] overvalued assets » from the group of “812 million to 2.2 billion dollars”depending on the years.
As a result of “repeated fraud”, the judge had ordered at the end of September the liquidation of the companies managing these assets, such as the Trump Tower and the neo-Gothic style and soon to be century-old skyscraper of 40 Wall Street, in the hall of which Donald Trump gave some of his press conferences after the trial hearings. This decision was suspended on appeal.
The 77-year-old Republican magnate and tribune has continued to rage against a justice system that he considers to be in the hands of the Democrats, denouncing “a trial worthy of a banana republic”. His lawyers argued that the file was legally void. Donald Trump did not risk prison in this civil case, while this prospect exists in the criminal trials planned for this year – like the one set Thursday for March 25 for payments to silence a porn star.