- Former US President Donald Trump has been sentenced to pay a fine of more than $350 million in a fraud trial.
- This was announced by Judge Arthur Engoron in New York.
- Trump is also not allowed to run a business in New York state for three years.
A court in New York state has imposed a multi-million dollar fine on Donald Trump, his companies and some executives. Prosecutors accused Trump, his sons and employees of manipulating the value of the Trump Organization for years.
Donald Trump and his companies were ordered to pay $355 million. His eldest sons, Trump Organization co-chairmen Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were each ordered to pay $4 million. Former CFO Allen Weisselberg has to pay a million dollar fine.
Trump is also barred from serving as an officer or director of a company in New York for three years. However, the court backed down from an earlier ruling that had called for the total breakup of the former president’s companies.
Accounting fraud or “witch hunt”
New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump of overstating his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion for a decade in order to get better loan terms.
Trump spoke of a political case that the Democratic prosecutor had brought against him as a Republican.
Trump’s lawyers announced that they would appeal. The verdict is an “obvious injustice” and the “culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt.”
In the middle of the election campaign
There was no threat of prison time or direct impact on Trump’s bid for the presidency in the civil case. However, the former president is currently involved in a number of other proceedings. The start of a trial in connection with hush money payments to a porn star at the end of March was only confirmed on Thursday. It would be the first criminal trial of a former president in US history.
Three further criminal trials are being prepared, including on allegations of attempted election manipulation, and civil trials are also ongoing. Just at the end of January, a jury in a second libel trial awarded 80-year-old author E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in compensation. Trump’s lawyers had announced that they wanted to appeal.
The 77-year-old Trump is considered the Republicans’ most promising candidate in the upcoming presidential election in November. So far, he has often used his trials as election campaign events, which has already brought him into disputes with several judges.