Global Courant
A judge ruled Tuesday that former President Donald Trump and his company are liable for fraud by misrepresenting the true values of multiple properties for years.
Judge Arthur Engoron also canceled the New York business certificates from Trump, the Trump Organization and the other defendants implicating two of his sons in a lawsuit by the attorney general’s office.
The judge said he will appoint an independent receiver to manage the dissolution of the companies whose corporate certificates he has revoked.
It is not clear whether Engoron’s decision means the Trump Organization and related entities will have to stop doing business in New York completely, or whether the companies could be legally reincorporated later.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment on that question. And a lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that question, but said he would appeal the entire decision.
Engoron, in granting partial summary judgment to James in the case, found that Trump had for years provided false and misleading valuations for multiple real estate assets in representations to insurers and banks as he sought more favorable terms for insurance coverage and loans.
Because of these misstatements, Trump also inflated his true net worth in annual financial statements by billions of dollars, according to the decision.
“In the Defendants’ world: rent-regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unlimited land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party that places responsibility on another party, absolve the other party’s lies.’, Engoron wrote.
“That’s a fantasy world, not the real world.”
Defendants in the case include Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, corporate director Jeff McConney, and corporate entities.
Engoron also ordered $7,500 in sanctions for five lawyers representing Trump defendants for making frivolous and previously rejected arguments in lawsuits.
The ruling comes as Trump is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and separately faces a total of 91 felonies in four criminal cases, three of which will go to trial at the height of the primary cycle.
He has denied being guilty of all charges.
Engoron wrote that James’ office in his civil fraud case “prevailed in liability on its first cause of action … unlike all defendants.”
The judge added that if liability for fraud is established under New York law, that law allows the attorney general to obtain an order prohibiting suspects from continuing to do business or engaging in “fraudulent or illegal acts.”
He noted that even after appointing an independent financial monitor for the Trump Organization last year, “Defendants have continued to spread false and misleading information while conducting business,” Engoron wrote.
“This continued violation of the Court’s prior order, combined with the continued nature of the false (financial condition statements) year after year, has demonstrated the need for the revocation of Defendants’ (business) certificates… as required by law determines,” the judge said. judge wrote.
Engoron’s ruling, which also rejected Trump’s request to dismiss the case, did not resolve six other issues in the case.
These issues will be heard during a non-jury trial that begins Monday.
James is seeking $250 million in damages in the case and wants Trump and his two adult sons banned from doing business in the state.
The 35-page ruling describes how Trump fraudulently sold his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, by more than 2,000%, Trump Park Avenue and 40 Wall Street in New York City, his Seven Springs property in Westchester County, appreciated. New York, and its golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland.
“Time and time again, the Court does not compare one assessment with another; it likens an independent professional assessment to a pie-in-the-sky dream of fabricated potential,” Engoron wrote.
After noting that Trump had filed affidavits falsely claiming that the Trump Tower apartment he lived in for decades was nearly three times its actual size, and worth as much as $327 million, the judge wrote, “ A discrepancy of this magnitude, by a real estate developer who has spent decades upgrading his own living space, can only be considered fraud.”
“The documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that Defendants used in business,” Engoron wrote.
“Defendants respond that: the documents do not say what they say; that there is no such thing as ‘objective’ value; and that the Court should essentially not believe its own lying eyes,” the judge noted.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement: “It is important to remember that the Trump Organization is an American success story and that the fact that a judge without a trial would say there is no evidence of fact and a decision like this in short would issue a lawsuit is worrying. and we will appeal.”
“Mr Trump must appear in court. “If the AG can file a lawsuit against any entity because they disagree with their values and claim Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 to $20 million, that’s ridiculous,” Habba said.
Trump responded to Engoron’s ruling by posting another statement on social media attacking James and the judge, while doubling down on his claims that he had a much higher net worth than what was shown on the financial statements at the center of the fraud case .
“It is grossly unfair, and I am seeking the assistance of the highest courts in New York State, or the federal system, to intervene,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.
