A New York judge has found Donald Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud, saying the Trumps provided false financial statements for roughly a decade.

Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling came days before the civil case involving the New York attorney general’s office and the former president was set to go to trial.

Engoron granted Attorney General Letitia James’ motion for summary judgment, finding Trump, his sons, and others “to be liable as a matter of law for persistent violations” of New York state law. He found the financial statements the Trumps provided to lenders and insurers for about a decade to be false and said they repeatedly engaged in fraud.

In the order, the judge rejected Trump’s deposition testimony in which the former president said that the financial statements were not fraudulent because they contained disclaimers. Trump said the statements contained a “worthless clause” in them warning lenders and others that they shouldn’t be relied on.

Tuesday, the judge said that “the defendants’ reliance on these ‘worthless’ disclaimers is worthless.”

James has alleged that Trump, three of his children, his companies and his business executives defrauded lenders, insurers and other entities.

In the lawsuit, James claims that Trump reaped a “substantial” financial benefit by putting forward faulty information in his financial statements, including $150 million in the form of favorable interest rates he obtained from the banks that the attorney general said his team misled.

Engoron said the remaining issues for trial are determining liability on other claims in the lawsuit, as well as how much Trump and the other defendants should pay.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

  • btaf45@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump is also a professional con man and fraudster. Are there any crimes that Loser Trump is not guilty of?

  • nkat2112@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    9 months ago

    The article has since been updated - though I wonder if it will be updated further still:

    A New York judge has found Donald Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud, saying the Trumps provided false financial statements for roughly a decade.

    Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling came days before the civil case involving the New York attorney general’s office and the former president was set to go to trial.

    Engoron granted Attorney General Letitia James’ motion for summary judgment, finding Trump, his sons, and others “to be liable as a matter of law for persistent violations” of New York state law. He found the financial statements the Trumps provided to lenders and insurers for about a decade to be false and said they repeatedly engaged in fraud.

    The decision is a blow to Trump and a complete rejection of his arguments that he didn’t inflate the values of his golf courses, hotels, homes at Mar-a-Lago and Seven Springs on financial statements that were repeatedly used in business.

    The attorney general has sought $250 million in damages, a ban on the Trumps from serving as officers of a business in New York, and to stop the company from engaging in business transaction for five years.

    Among other things, Trump is accused of inflating the value of his triplex apartment at Trump Tower by three times its size, resulting in an overvaluation of between $114 million to $207 million, Engoron wrote.

    “A discrepancy of this order of magnified, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.

    “Exacerbating defendants’ obstreperous conduct is their continued reliance on bogus arguments, in papers and oral argument,” Engoron wrote. “In defendants’ world: rent regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party casting responsibility on another party exonerates the other party’s lies …”

    The judge added: “That is a fantasy world, not the real world.”

    Trump attorneys have not responded to requests for comment.

    James has alleged that Trump, three of his children, his companies and his business executives defrauded lenders, insurers and other entities. (An appeals court dismissed Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, as a co-defendant from the case in June.)

    In the lawsuit, James claims that Trump reaped a “substantial” financial benefit by putting forward faulty information in his financial statements, including $150 million in the form of favorable interest rates he obtained from the banks that the attorney general said his team misled.

    In the order, the judge rejected Trump’s deposition testimony in which the former president said that the financial statements were not fraudulent because they contained disclaimers. Trump said the statements contained a “worthless clause” in them warning lenders and others that they shouldn’t be relied on.

    Tuesday, the judge said that “the defendants’ reliance on these ‘worthless’ disclaimers is worthless.”

    The ruling means the attorney general’s office won on its first two claims and will receive some amount of disgorgement to be determined at trial. The case will still proceed to trial but the attorney general’s office won’t need to prove the financial statements are false as they seek to hold him and his sons liable for insurance fraud and false business records.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling came days before the civil case involving the New York attorney general’s office and the former president was set to go to trial.

    He found the financial statements the Trumps provided to lenders and insurers for about a decade to be false and said they repeatedly engaged in fraud.

    In the order, the judge rejected Trump’s deposition testimony in which the former president said that the financial statements were not fraudulent because they contained disclaimers.

    James has alleged that Trump, three of his children, his companies and his business executives defrauded lenders, insurers and other entities.

    In the lawsuit, James claims that Trump reaped a “substantial” financial benefit by putting forward faulty information in his financial statements, including $150 million in the form of favorable interest rates he obtained from the banks that the attorney general said his team misled.

    Engoron said the remaining issues for trial are determining liability on other claims in the lawsuit, as well as how much Trump and the other defendants should pay.


    The original article contains 272 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 37%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    “I demand summary judgement!”

    “GRANTED!”

    “No… not like that…”

    IIRC this is the case where his lawyers neglected to ask for a jury trial, so it’s all on the judge and he IS NOT having it…

  • wlh0242@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Meanwhile the big guy’s selling America to the highest bidder lol.