Trump Tower in Manhattan, headquarters for Donald Trump’s real-estate empire.
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Trump, his eldest sons, and his real-estate empire deceived banks and insurers, a Manhattan judge found Tuesday.
The harshly-worded ruling is a pre-trial win for state Attorney General Letitia James, who wants him banned from doing business in NY.
An October trial must still decide if that will happen.
In a stunning, pre-trial win in New York attorney general’s all-out war on the Trump Organization, a Manhattan judge has found that Donald Trump committed fraud for years by inflating his worth to banks and insurers by as much as $3.6 billion a year.
A strongly-worded ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron rejected outright Trump’s request for a range of pre-trial victories, calling his arguments “rehashed” and “erroneous.”
Instead, the judge gave the major victory to Attorney General Letitia James, finding in her favor that Trump is liable for fraud; a trial must still be held to determine what penalties he, his two eldest sons, and his company must pay.
To boot, the judge ordered that Trump attorneys Michael Madaio, Clifford S. Robert, Michael Farina, Christopher Kise, and Armen Morian pay penalties of $7,500 each in the next 30 days.
Engoron saved some of his harshest words for Trump’s claim that no banks were victimized, and that “disclaimers” in his official banking statements somehow render him fraud proof.
Such claims “invoke the time-loop in the film ‘Groundhog Day,'” Engoron wrote, in a scorching latest chapter to New York’s $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump, his two adult sons, two of his senior managers, and Trump Organization.
At another point in the 35-page ruling, the judge referenced “Defendants’ inscrutable persistence” in repeatedly claiming that the attorney general, Letitia James has no power to sue him.
“Infants, legally-declared incompetents, and persons under certain legal disabilities are not allowed to sue,” the judge wrote. “The New York Attorney General is none of the above.”
Read the judge’s decision declining to streamline Trump’s business fraud trial.
Engoron, who will preside over the non-jury trial, has insisted on opening statements starting promptly on Monday, October 2, “come hell or high water.”
Trump’s side threw that timing into question two weeks ago by asking a Manhattan-based appellate panel to consider Trump’s bid to toss at least part of the AG’s case on statute-of-limitations and other grounds.
The trial can’t start until that five-judge ruling, expected to come in days.
James alleges that Trump falsely inflated his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year to get breaks from banks and insurers.
She is seeking $250 million in penalties, and to ban Trump and his adult sons from ever running a business in New York state again. She also wants to ban Trump and the Trump organization from borrowing from a New York bank or purchasing real estate in the state for five years.
Trump’s legal team counters that real-estate appraisals are subjective, and that Deutsche Bank in particular, far for being victimized, actually profited from the disputed loans, arguments Trump himself has continued to make, including, in a deposition.
Last week, during the parties’ last in-person appearance, Engoron continued to be unswayed by Trump’s no harm, no foul defense.
“There’s a role here for the attorney general,” the judge said. “What was arguably hurt was fairness in the marketplace. Honesty in the marketplace.”
The parties return to his courtroom Wednesday for their final pre-trial conference.