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 seeking “$370 million” in compensation from them, according to court documents , Friday.
This is much more than the $250 million that the state attorney general (equivalent to a regional justice minister), Letitia James, had requested in her complaint in the fall of 2022, which triggered the trial ongoing civil case for financial fraud before the 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 prudent,” Donald Trump assured again on Friday.
With his sons and their family group, Trump Organization, they are accused by New York civil justice of having colossally inflated the value of the skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses at the heart of their empire during the 2010s, 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 on him for violating this order.
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” 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 financial penalties claimed by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which is now asking for $370 million and no longer $250 million, as in the initial complaint. .
It remains for Judge Engoron to close the proceedings this month and determine the amount of damage and reparations.