![\"\"](\"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Donald.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHe also incurred $15,000 in fines for violating a gag order imposed by the judge following disparaging social media remarks about a court staffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Court held that Trump lied about his wealth for years in a civil fraud case that endangered his real estate business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an earlier ruling, the judge found, among other things, that Trump\u2019s financial statements had wrongly claimed his Trump Tower penthouse was nearly three times its actual size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that he overvalued his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, based on the idea that the property could be developed for residential use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he had already surrendered his rights to develop it for any uses but a club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The presiding judge, Arthur Engoron punished Trump, his company, its executives including his two eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judge Engoron said that the defendants schemed to dupe banks, insurers and others by inflating Trump\u2019s wealth on financial statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge placed Trump Organization under court supervision and curtailed how it does business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He expectedly vowed to appeal the judgement, hence will not have to pay immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under state law, meanwhile, he is required to pay interest on the penalties to the state, which may be as much as $450 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amount, on the other hand, will continue to grow until he pays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were each ordered to pay $4 million realised from the 2022 sale of Trump\u2019s Washington, D.C. hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A former chief financial officer of the company, Allen Weisselberg, was also ordered to pay $1 million, being half of the $2 million severance he got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Altogether, Trump and his co-defendants owe $364 million which, according to the prosecuting attorney, will grow to $464 million when interest is included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, Weisselberg and another longtime company executive, Jeffrey McConney, were barred by the court from ever holding a corporate finance or leadership role in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recent verdict evidently constitutes a noisy setback in the ambition of the Republican presidential front-runner to return to White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It could also dent his financial resources and damage his identity as a real estate developer, later a reality TV showman and finally the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presently, Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge, however, concluded that Trump and his company were likely to continue their fraudulent ways without the penalties and controls he imposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that Trump and his co-defendants failed to accept responsibility and that experts who testified on his behalf simply denied reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a venial sin, not a mortal sin.\u201cThey did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways,\u201d Engoron stated in the 92-page verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said their \u201ccomplete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological\u201d and \u201cthe frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reacting to the judgement, Trump said the decision constitutes an inference into the upcoming election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also described it as a \u201cweaponization against a political opponent\u201d, the judge \u2014 \u201cextremely hostile\u201d and the prosecutor \u2014 \u201ca political hack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his closing arguments in January, Trump had declared: \u201cI am an innocent man\u201d, and the case a \u2014 \u201cfraud on me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trump\u2019s judgement fines jump to $461.6m, as court orders him, his company to pay $3644m for fraudPublished 6 days ago…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1722,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions\/1722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcozigbo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}