(New York) The State of New York, which filed a civil complaint for financial fraud against former President Donald Trump, his sons and their real estate empire Trump Organization, is now demanding “$370 million” in compensation from them, according to court documents Friday.
That’s far more than the $250 million that state Attorney General Letitia James requested in her fall 2022 complaint and which triggered the ongoing civil trial for financial fraud in New York court, where Donald Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric have testified since October.
Reacting immediately on his social network Truth Social, the Republican billionaire campaigning for the November presidential election, once again attacked Mme James, African-American magistrate at the head of justice in the State of New York and elected representative of the Democratic Party, whom he accuses of being “corrupt” and of leading a “witch hunt”.
I did not do anything wrong. My financial statements are good and very conservative.
Donald Trump, on Truth Social
With his sons and their Trump Organization family group, they are accused by the New York civil courts of having colossally inflated during the 2010s the value of the skyscrapers, luxury hotels or golf courses at the heart of their empire, to obtain more favorable loans from banks and better insurance conditions.
“Banana Republic”
Since the start of the trial in Manhattan on October 2, the 77-year-old businessman has railed against justice each time he comes to court, denouncing a “witch hunt” or a “trial worthy of a banana republic.” . After attacks on his clerk, Judge Arthur Engoron banned Donald Trump from speaking about his team and imposed two fines totaling $15,000 for violating this order.
PHOTO DAVE SANDERS, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Judge Arthur Engoron
His lawyers denounce a legally empty file.
Unlike the criminal trials awaiting him this year, including that for his alleged maneuvers aimed at reversing the result of the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump does not risk prison time in this civil case.
But he is playing big and things are off to a bad start.
Even before the opening of the proceedings, Judge Engoron estimated at the end of September that the prosecution presented “conclusive evidence that between 2014 and 2021, the defendants overvalued the assets” of the group by “812 million [à] 2.2 billion dollars” depending on the year, in the figures recorded on Donald Trump’s annual financial statements.
As a result of “repeated fraud,” he ordered the liquidation of companies managing these assets, such as the Trump Tower on 5e Manhattan Avenue or the 40 Wall Street skyscraper.
Measures suspended, however, by an appeal court.
The trial concerns several other crimes, such as insurance fraud, and the financial penalties claimed by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which is now asking for 370 million dollars and no longer 250 million in the initial complaint.
It remains for Judge Engoron to close the proceedings this month and determine the amount of damage and reparations.