Former President Donald Trump was fined 479 million Canadian dollars ($355 million) on Friday for financial fraud in his real estate empire and banned from conducting business in New York state for three years.
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Jason Opal
Full Professor of History. Photo from McGill University website
“The judge’s ruling against the Trump Organization represents a historic and unprecedented setback for a former president, especially one running for another term. “Never before has a president or ex-president been condemned like this,” said Jason Opal, a tenured professor of history at McGill University.
In a 92-page court document, Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court removed Donald Trump from directing “any corporation or legal entity in New York for a period of three years.”
The billionaire tycoon was also ordered to pay a $354.86 million fine.
It's a decision that represents a blow to the legacy 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 is about his reputation as an exceptional businessman, as a financial genius, which is more important to him than anything else,” he continues.
“Witch Hunt”
That state's attorney general, Letitia James, filed a complaint against Donald Trump in October 2022, bringing him to civil litigation on fraud charges.
She accused him and his sons of having enormously inflated the value of their skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses around the world in order to obtain cheaper loans from banks and better insurance conditions.
New York State's top judge, elected by the Democratic Party, demanded $370 million in compensation.
No mistake
Donald Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, criticized her.
Mr Habba announced that his client would appeal this decision.
Judge Engoron also emphasized on Friday 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 defendants are unable to admit their mistakes,” ruled 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 a porn star
Donald Trump is accused of “orchestrating” payments to silence three people whose revelations could have damaged him before the 2016 presidential election.
Specifically, $130,000 was paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged extramarital affair from 2006 secret. Each of the 34 crimes for which Donald Trump is being prosecuted carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
Election pressure
Another more damaging matter: his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden. Donald Trump was indicted by federal authorities in August on charges of “conspiracy against the American state.” The case focuses on the attack by Republican loyalists on the seat of the American Congress on January 6, 2021. He faces dozens of years in prison.
Georgia
Donald Trump's 2020 election pressures are also at the center of a case in Georgia. The ex-chairman is blamed, among other things, for his call to a manager on January 2, 2021, in which he asked him to “find” 12,000 ballots in his name. About 10 other people have been charged in the case, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The public prosecutor used a law against organized crime for the prosecution, which provided for prison sentences of five to twenty years. Trump called for the charges to be dropped.
State secrets
Trump is also accused of endangering US security by protecting state secrets after he left the White House in January 2021. In connection with this affair, the FBI raided the ex-businessman's apartment in Florida on August 8, 2022. A federal trial is scheduled for May 25, 2024 in Miami. Here too, Donald Trump faces a prison sentence.
Civil trials in New York
The Republican is being prosecuted in several civil cases. In addition to enormously inflating the value of his real estate assets in the 2010s, Donald Trump was also ordered to pay a huge $83.3 million in compensation to author E. Jean Carroll amid rape allegations to pay for defaming them in the 1990s.