Former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants could be ordered to pay more than $370 million for defrauding lenders, insurers, and tax authorities with false financial statements, according to a post- trial brief filing by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In a post-trial brief filed Friday, James also requested the court to prohibit Trump from doing business in New York and to ban his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from doing business in the state for five years.
James argued in her brief that the evidence presented at trial showed that Trump and his co-defendants’ fraud was “persistent and repeated” and that their deceptive schemes were “so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.”
She asked the court to order Trump and his co-defendants to pay $370 million in disgorgement, or “ill-gotten gains” – a dramatic increase over the original figure of $250 million.
The brief followed an 11-week trial that ended in December, in which James’ office tried to prove that Trump and his company lied about the value of their assets and hid unfavorable information to obtain loans, insurance, and tax benefits.
The trial came after a summary judgment ruling in October by Judge Arthur Engoron, who found Trump and his co-defendants guilty of fraud and ordered the cancellation of Trump’s business certificates in New York. Trump has appealed that decision and the court has paused dissolving the companies.
Trump’s attorneys, however, urged the judge to reject the allegations against Trump, writing in their briefs that most of the transactions in the attorney general’s complaint were beyond the statute of limitations, that Trump’s statements of financial condition did not contain material misstatements, and that the attorney general did not demonstrate any real-world impact.
They claimed that there was no evidence that any of the loans obtained by Trump and his company were affected by the alleged misstatements and that no witnesses from any bank or elsewhere testified to that effect at trial.
The post-trial briefs set the stage for closing arguments before Engoron next week. The judge could issue his ruling as soon as later this month.
Engoron has already rejected several of the arguments from Trump’s attorneys, including challenges to the statute of limitations and disgorgement, finding that both were legally appropriate.
He also denied Trump’s motion for a directed verdict to dismiss the case last month, writing in a three-page opinion that the experts called at trial by Trump’s attorneys were not credible and that the defense’s key arguments were unconvincing.
Trump’s attorneys have made clear repeatedly at the trial that they plan to appeal Engoron’s ruling, on top of the appeal that’s already been filed after his summary judgment decision.
(With inputs from agencies)
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