Donald Trump and his two children Donald Jr and Eric were condemned to pay 354 million of dollars to have inflated assets of the family holding company with the aim of obtaining more advantageous conditions from banks and insurance companies. It is the decision that was made by Judge Arthur Engoron in civil trial a New York per flourish. Not only. The former American president, currently running in the Republican Party primaries, was banned per three years from doing business in New York State or have top roles in any company in the area. His children were, however, banned from the New York business center for two years and sentenced to pay a fine of 4 million dollars each.
“He ordered me to inflate it to the level he arbitrarily decided,” he declared in court during the trial Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer. And it is precisely from the testimony of the tycoon’s former fixer that theinvestigation. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused him and his two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, of having inflated the value of the company’s assets by more than two billion dollars for a decade. Trump Organization to obtain better conditions from banks and insurance companies. Trump has always denied the accusations and his lawyers, even before the verdict, announced their appeal. “This verdict is a clear injustice, New York is no longer open for business,” commented one of his lawyers, announcing that he will appeal against what he defined as “catastrophic errors”.
This is a very hard blow to the empire of tycoon and to his image of successful entrepreneur in the midst of election campaign for the White House. For the former president it is the third conviction in civil court, after the two trials for defamation and sexual assault against the writer Jean Carroll, for which it will have to pay a total of around 90 million dollars. Added to the penalty for inflated assets, it comes to almost half a billionexcluding legal costs, including those of others four criminal trials still pending: a figure that, according to Bloombergcould reduce its by 15%. patrimony net, creating short-term liquidity problems. Initially the prosecution had asked for a fine of 250 million, raising it to 370 at the end of the hearing.
According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, the intent of Trump and the other defendants to defraud while preparing the Trump Organization’s financial statements was “incontrovertible“. The defense argued that the valuation of the group’s assets was subjective but sincere, and that the banks did not lose a dollar but rather benefited from the loans. However, the contested law does not require that damage be demonstrated. When questioned in court, Trump and his two sons attempted to shift all responsibility onto them accountantsbut it turned out that they were the ones giving the instructions.