MANHATTAN (CN) — A New York judge on Friday ordered former President Donald Trump to pay nearly $355 million in disgorgement after finding Trump had fraudulently inflated his net worth on yearly financial documents, stiffing banks and insurers out of millions.
In his 92-page decision, Judge Arthur Engoron cited Trump and his co-defendants’ refusal to admit wrongdoing throughout the trial as a reason for the hefty penalties.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote. “Defendants’ refusal to admit error… constrains this court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained.”
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Engoron agreed with the attorney general’s assessment that Trump’s vastly inaccurate statements of financial condition profited him hundreds of millions of dollars more than if the documents had been truthful.
Throughout the trial, Trump’s lawyers claimed that it was the responsibility of external accountants to verify the accuracy of those documents, not the Trump Organization. The judge rejected that defense in his ruling.
“There is overwhelming evidence from both interested and non-interested witnesses, corroborated by documentary evidence, that the buck for being truthful in the supporting data valuations stopped with the Trump Organization, not the accountants,” Engoron wrote. “Moreover, the Trump Organization intentionally engaged their accountants to perform compilations, as opposed to reviews or audits, which provided the lowest level of scrutiny.”
In addiion to the cash penalties, Engoron also issued limited industry bans to Trump and co-defendants Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, Trump Organization executives who assisted Trump in the scheme. The judge precluded them from “serving as an officer or director” in the New York real estate business for three years. He also permanently banned Weisselberg and McConney from serving in a financial control capacity at any state organization.
“The evidence is overwhelming that Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney cannot be entrusted with controlling the finances of any business,” Engoron wrote.
Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.
Trump’s adult sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were co-defendants in the case as well, were issued two-year bans. They each owe $4 million for their role in the fraud.
Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization finance chief, is on the hook for $1 million. But the fallout from this trial could be much greater for Weisselberg. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that he was in talks with Manhattan prosecutors for a perjury plea deal stemming from his October testimony.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba called Friday’s ruling a “manifest injustice,” and one that she intends to appeal.
“Given the grave stakes, we trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious verdict and end this relentless persecution against my clients,” Habba said in a statement.
The Friday ruling is a slam dunk for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was seeking $370 million from the defendants. James will hold a press conference Friday evening in Lower Manhattan to discuss the decision.
Engoron’s ruling comes after a 10-week trial that ran from October to December 2023. The parties returned to the New York Supreme Courthouse in mid-January for a dramatic day of closing arguments, which featured an unplanned rant from Trump himself.
“This is a political witch hunt,” Trump said, claiming he was an “innocent man” who was being “persecuted by someone running for office.”
James initially brought the civil fraud suit against Trump and his namesake real estate firm in 2022. Because of the damages sought, the case was brought as a bench trial that gave Engoron the final say on wrongdoing and punishments.
Before trial even began, Engoron found Trump liable for the case’s top fraud count.
“You cannot make false statements and use them in business,” he said, chiding Trump for lying on his yearly finance reports.
Witnesses testified Trump instructed employees to “reverse-engineer” his financial statements to hit a target net worth, which he wanted to see “go up” each year. Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, now an outspoken critic of the former president, testified that he was tasked to “increase the total assets” based on a number that Trump “arbitrarily selected.”
“I would sit down with Allen [Weisselberg] and we would make the changes,” Cohen said. “That document would then be photocopied that had all of the changes, at which point in time Allen and I would return to Mr. Trump and demonstrate that we had achieved close to the number that he was seeking.”
Throughout the proceedings, Trump repeatedly called the trial “unfair” and “election interference.” He frequently attended the trial, using the Manhattan courthouse as a de facto campaign stop to attack the attorney general and other political opponents.
This past October, Engoron issued a narrow gag order against Trump after he attacked the judge’s chief law clerk on social media. Trump twice violated the order and was fined a total of $15,000. He unsuccessfully challenged the gag order in appellate court.
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