Bild: QuoteInspector.com, CC BY-ND 2.0
Trump sentenced to more than $450 million for financial fraud. The sentence puts pressure on the Republican. Will it even cost him a return to the presidency?
Arthur Engoron, Judge of the Supreme Court of the US State of New York, did not give the defendant former US President Donald Trump a good reference after three years of negotiations in a fraud trial. Trump is pathologically incapable of showing remorse.
Advertisement
Judge: Trump takes no responsibility
New York Attorney General Letitia James had sued Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and others. They violated the law by inflating the value of Trump’s real estate in order to inflate his net worth and obtain better credit and insurance terms.
Engoron now agreed and sentenced Trump to a fine in the hundreds of millions. He certified to the Trump Organization, to which the family’s eldest sons also belong:
Witnesses and experts simply denied reality, and defendants failed to take responsibility or implement internal controls to prevent future recurrences
Arthur Engoron
The judge saw it as proven that there was a method to this business behavior. The fine of $355 million (plus interest) is appropriate because it only quantifies how much Trump was able to earn additional money – through cheap loans – by making false statements about his actual possessions.
If Trump had to pay immediately, he would probably be ruined, because essentially the verdict proves that Trump is juggling money that he simply doesn’t have. But since he can appeal, the process could drag on for years.
Trump’s financial roller coaster: bankruptcies and bragging
Since Donald Trump has been doing business, he has been bankrupt or threatened with bankruptcy. He has already had to file for bankruptcy a total of six times. Trump wouldn’t be Trump if he hadn’t always been surprisingly open about it.
also read
Show moreShow less
Ivanka Trump’s legendary video is known to many Americans. Young Ivanka recounted how her father pointed to a homeless man on the streets of Manhattan and said, “Look, he’s eight billion richer than me.”
Trump assumed that the man had no assets but that he had eight billion in debt.
Trump and the art of self-dramatization
And yet Trump always managed to get his head out of the loop. He achieved this through a pompous demeanor that obviously impressed people. The audience’s assumption is, “He won’t have made this all up.” Trump has learned from this: the bolder he appears, the more people believe him.
Trump’s political game: taxes, lies and Clinton
This is exactly what his political success is based on. In the television debate with his running mate Hillary Clinton, Trump once boasted during the election campaign that he hardly paid any taxes. He prided himself on downplaying his assets to the tax authorities. That shows his cunning.
The tax laws are simply unfair and the system is manipulated. Trump’s mantra is: “The system is rigged.” He continued bluntly in the TV debate, but no one would change it because it would benefit Hillary Clinton’s donors as much as he did.
Clinton was never able to refute this accusation, also because her political career ended shortly after the TV duel. However, it can be assumed that it would not have actually changed anything in the existing situation. Trump’s furore about “draining the swamp”, meaning the tax system, was forgotten after he moved into the White House.
The Court File: Trump’s Disreputable Practices Exposed
The big, hollow words tactic doesn’t work for the New York judges. It’s remarkable that Trump only had this experience so late in his career.
The court’s task was to examine whether the ex-president had obtained economic advantages through unfair false statements and, if necessary, to repay these through fines.
The Creative Biller: Trump’s Fraudulent Scam
The facts are partly astonishingly simple. Trump owns a 1,018 square meter New York penthouse, the size of which he stated in 1994 as 30,000 square meters. A rounding error that results in tripling the size is clearly fraud. Nobody miscalculates like that.
Such exaggerated statements allowed Trump to take out larger loans, including from Deutsche Bank, and negotiate lower interest rates. Equipped with these securities, he was able to buy the iconic Old Post Office Pavilion building in Washington during his term as president and convert it into the “Trump International Hotel”.
As incumbent president, Trump then forced foreign state guests to stay overnight in this hotel. This was tricky for many because the brand name “Trump Hotel” had become an obstacle due to his political career. Many guests feared making a political statement by staying overnight in a Trump hotel.
Even back then, Trump’s actions were not very subtle and for a long time smacked of desperation. Trump must now pay back hundreds of millions of dollars that he obtained through false statements. He is also banned from doing business in New York for three years.
Trump’s Financial Fiasco: Debt and Foreclosure
Now Donald Trump is certainly not the man to change his style in a crisis. He let the curious public know that he had the 400 million available in cash anyway. If this is true, the money could be confiscated within the next 30 days. If it is again an exaggeration and another lie, then things could get tight for Trump at some point – despite the appeal.
Possible consequence: Trump’s financial collapse
Trump’s properties, such as the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, could then fall into foreclosure. Then even more evidence could come to light of how Trump exaggerated his wealth and therefore his entrepreneurial success.
In total, Trump currently has a capital requirement of around half a billion US dollars, as he also has to pay the 83 million in compensation for defamation to the author E. Jean Carroll.
Some of the payments that are now due can only be postponed with a lot of cooperation from the other side. It is questionable whether the legal opponents will agree to this.
Trump’s political dilemma: primary campaign and legal proceedings
At the same time, Trump is conducting a thoroughly successful primary election campaign. However, he is not allowed to misuse donations for his campaign. And there is always reason for it.
During the 2016 election campaign, he paid hush money to the porn actress Stormy Daniels and thereby sabotaged the work of the judicial authorities. The trial in this case hangs like the sword of Damocles hangs over Trump. It is scheduled to be decided in March 2024.
What Trump needs now are rich supporters who will simply take over his accumulated debts. But no favors can be expected from these circles. If a “friendly” billionaire pays Trump’s bill, he will demand corresponding political compensation from the future president.
2024-02-17 23:03:46
#Milliondollar #fine #Trump #York #verdict #drive #expresident #ruin
