LAST UPDATE | 16 Feb

A US JUDGE has ordered Donald Trump to pay nearly $355 million after finding him liable for fraud and banned him from running businesses in New York state for three years.

Trump – almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee this November – was found liable for unlawfully inflating his wealth and manipulating the value of properties to obtain more favorable bank loans or insurance terms.

“The Court hereby enjoins Donald 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,” Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in his ruling, ordering Trump to pay $354,868,768.

The extent of the order by Judge Arthur Engoron threatens to shatter his personal wealth and ability to earn in the future.

The “defendants’ refusal to admit error – indeed, to continue it, according to the Independent Monitor – constrains this Court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained,” Engoron wrote in his scathing order.

“Indeed, Donald Trump testified that, even today, he does not believe the Trump Organization needed to make any changes based on the facts that came out during this trial.”

It was as a property developer and businessman in New York that Trump built his public profile which he used as a springboard into the entertainment industry and ultimately the presidency.

One of Trump’s lawyers slammed the court calling the verdict “a manifest injustice – plain and simple”.

Alina Habba said on X: “It is the culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt that was designed to ‘take down Donald Trump.’”

As the case is civil rather than criminal, there is no threat of jail time. However, Trump said ahead of the ruling that a ban on conducting business in New York state would be akin to a “corporate death penalty.”

This civil fraud trial is one of multiple cases Trump faces as he seeks to return to the White House, ranging from a hush money coverup allegation to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election result.

New York state attorney general Letitia James had sought $370 million from Trump to remedy the advantage he is alleged to have wrongfully obtained, as well as having him barred from conducting business in the state.

Trump has repeatedly attacked James, calling her a “lunatic”, as well as smearing Engoron, who decided the case without a jury, calling him ”out of control”.

During highly technical testimony, the court heard that in one case Trump valued Mar-a-Lago, his exclusive Florida club, by using “asking prices”, rather than actual sales prices, for a comparison.

“From 2011-2015 defendants added a 30 percent premium because the property was a ‘completed (commercial) facility,’” the prosecution said, arguing it unlawfully distorted its true value.

Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise said that “there is no clear and present evidence establishing intent by Donald Trump.”

Kise acknowledged there could be errors in Trump’s corporate financial statements but none “lead to the conclusion there was fraud”.

Other cases

Trump is currently involved in a number of other legal cases. 

He appeared in a New York court yesterday ahead of a criminal trial, where he faces charges of illegally covering up hush money payments. This will be the first criminal trial of a former US president.

Trump’s lawyers were also representing him in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is accused of conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

The prosecutor in that case responded with barely concealed outrage yesterday to efforts to have her removed from the case for inappropriate behavior, testifying that her relationship with another lawyer on the case was above board.

A separate trial on Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election is on hold in Washington, DC, while Trump attempts to assert presidential immunity.

Trump is due to go on trial in Florida in May on charges of taking troves of highly secret documents in his personal belongings when he left the presidency and thwarting officials trying to recover them.

Just last month, another New York court ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to compensate writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found in a civil trial to have sexually assaulted, then defamed.

Includes reporting by AFP