Former President Donald Trump was fined CA$479 million (US$355 million) on Friday for financial fraud within his real estate empire and is banned from running businesses in New York state. during three years.
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“The judge’s verdict against the Trump Organization represents a historic and unprecedented setback for a former president, especially for someone running for another term. Never before has a president or ex-president suffered such a conviction,” explains Jason Opal, full professor of history at McGill University.
In a 92-page court document, Justice Arthur Engoron of the Supreme Court of the State of New York deprived Donald Trump of the management of “any business or legal entity in New York for a period of three years”.
The billionaire tycoon was also ordered to pay US$354.86 million in fines.
It is a decision which is a blow to the heritage of the former Republican President of the United States. But not only.
This setback could be damaging, and above all very embarrassing, believes Professor Opal. “This trial involves his reputation as an extraordinary businessman, as a financial genius, which is dearer to him than anything,” he continues.
” Witch hunt “
The attorney general of this state, Letitia James, filed a complaint against Donald Trump in October 2022 and took him to a civil trial for fraud.
She accused him, with his sons, of having colossally inflated the value of their skyscrapers, luxury hotels or golf courses around the world, to obtain more favorable loans from banks and better insurance conditions. .
The highest judge in the State of New York, elected from the Democratic Party, demanded $370 million in compensation.
No mistake
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, criticized on her .
Mr. Habba announced that his client would appeal this decision.
On Friday, Judge Engoron also stressed that the amount of the fines against Donald Trump and his sons was justified by their behavior during the trial.
“They are simply accused of inflating the value of their assets to make more money […] Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. However, the accused are incapable of recognizing their errors,” judged Arthur Engoron.
– With AFP
A series of legal setbacks
Donald Trump spoke to the media from his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Friday after being convicted of financial fraud.
Photo AFP
Payments to a porn star
Donald Trump is accused of having “orchestrated” payments to silence three individuals whose revelations could have harmed him before the 2016 presidential election.
In particular, $130,000 paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels so that she kept secret an alleged extramarital affair, dating back to 2006. Each of the 34 offenses for which Donald Trump is being prosecuted carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
Electoral pressures
Another more damaging affair: his attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden. Donald Trump was indicted in August by federal authorities, accused of “conspiracy against the American state”. At the heart of the case, the attack on the seat of the American Congress, by loyalists of the Republican, on January 6, 2021. He faces dozens of years in prison.
Georgia
Donald Trump’s electoral pressures in 2020 are also at the heart of a case in Georgia. The ex-leader is among other things implicated for his call to a manager on January 2, 2021, asking him to “find” 12,000 ballot papers in his name. About ten other people have been charged in this case, including his former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The prosecutor used a law on organized crime to prosecute them, providing for sentences of five to twenty years in prison. Trump called for the charges to be dropped.
State secrets
Trump is also accused of having endangered the security of the United States by keeping state secrets after his departure from the White House in January 2021. It is in the context of this affair that the residence of the The ex-businessman was raided by the FBI in Florida on August 8, 2022. A federal trial is scheduled in Miami for May 25, 2024. Here again, Donald Trump faces a prison sentence.
Civil Trials in New York
The Republican is being prosecuted in several civil cases. In addition to having colossally inflated the value of his real estate assets in the 2010s, Donald Trump was also ordered to pay a huge compensation of $83.3 million to the author E. Jean Carroll for having defamed her , against a backdrop of rape accusations in the 1990s.