A judge ruled on Tuesday (26) that Donald Trump and his company are guilty of fraud for distorting the true values of multiple real estate properties for years, thereby grossly exaggerating the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars.
“In the defendants’ world: rent-regulated apartments are worth the same as non-regulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; the restrictions can evaporate into thin air,” wrote Engoron. “This is a fantasy world, not the real world.”
The ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron also revoked the business certificates of Trump, the Trump Organization, and the other defendants, including two of his children, in New York, in a lawsuit filed by the state Attorney General’s Office.
The judge stated that he would appoint an independent administrator to oversee the dissolution of the corporate entities whose business certificates he revoked.
It is unclear whether the judge’s decision means that the Trump Organization and related entities will have to cease all business operations in New York, or if the companies can be legally reconstituted later.
Trump’s attorney, Chris Kise, who called the decision “outrageous,” said, “While the full impact of the decision remains unclear, what is clear is that President Trump and his family will seek all available remedies to rectify this judicial error,” he stated.
Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is separately facing a total of 91 criminal charges across four cases. Two of those cases are related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 reelection defeat. Another case involves the retention of confidential government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. In the fourth criminal case, Trump is accused of falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Trump responded to the judge’s decision: “It is very unfair, and I ask for help from the highest courts in the State of New York, or the Federal System, to intervene,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization with Donald Trump Jr., wrote: “In an attempt to destroy my father and expel him from New York, a judge just decided that Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach Florida, is worth only approximately $18 million. It is speculated that Mar-a-Lago is worth [well] over a billion dollars, making it arguably the most valuable residential property in the country. It’s all so corrupt and coordinated,” wrote Eric.
Source: CNBC