Former US President Donald Trump, in January 2024, during his fraud trial in New York. SHANNON STAPLETON / AP
The Attorney General of the State of New York welcomed “a huge victory” : Donald Trump was sentenced on Friday February 16 to a fine of nearly $355 million (329 million euros) for a series of financial frauds within his real estate empire, the Trump Organization.
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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 billionaire denounced a judgment on his Truth Social network “totally bogus”, denouncing a “electoral interference”. “There was no fraud”he then assured the press from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, shouting at“instrumentalization towards a political opponent”. As announced earlier on X by one of its lawyers, Mr. Trump confirmed that he would appeal this decision.
On the contrary, Letitia James, the attorney general, who filed a complaint against the real estate mogul in October 2022, welcomed it in a press release: “This is a huge victory for this state, for this country and for anyone who thinks we should all play by the same rules, even former presidents. » The highest judge in the State of New York, elected Democrat, forced Mr. Trump, 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. Ms. James, an elected Democrat, demanded $370 million in compensation from them.
The father and his sons were accused of having colossally inflated the value of the Trump Organization’s skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses during the 2010s to obtain more favorable loans from banks and better loan conditions. ‘insurance. Certain assets, such as the Trump Tower on Fifth 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.
“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 Trump Tower and the neo-Gothic style skyscraper and soon to be century-old 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.
Read also: Donald Trump: the legal investigations that threaten the former American president
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2024-02-16 20:40:08
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