Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354 million, says frauds 'shock the conscience'

The former president was found to have defrauded lenders.

Former President Donald Trump has been fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in interest in a civil fraud lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel him to the White House. In the decision, Judge Arthur Engoron excoriated Trump, saying the president's credibility was "severely compromised," that the frauds "shock the conscience" and that Trump and his co-defendants showed a "complete lack of contrition and remorse" that he said "borders on pathological."

Engoron also hit Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump with $4 million fines and barred all three from helming New York companies for years. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his adult sons of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" to inflate Trump's net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The former president has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.


Summary of penalties

Donald Trump and his adult sons were hit with millions in fines in the civil fraud trial and barred for years from being officers in New York companies. The judge said the frauds "shock the conscience."

Donald Trump: $354 million fine + approx. $100 million in interest
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
Donald Trump Jr.: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Eric Trump: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg: $1 million fine
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company
Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney:
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company


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Ivanka Trump says she wasn't 'privy to' father's financial statements

Asked about her involvement in her father's statements of financial condition that the judge has already determined fraudulently overvalued his real estate and inflated his net worth, Ivaka Trump said she had no knowledge of them.

"I would assume he had a personal financial statement," Ivanka Trump said. "Those weren't things that I was privy to."

Regarding a lease she had for a penthouse apartment in Trump Park Avenue that included an option to buy for $8.5 million, the New York attorney general's office said Trump's statement financial condition claimed that units in the building were selling for $20.8 million -- two and a half times as much.

Asked by state lawyer Louis Solomon whether she knew about that discrepancy, Ivanka Trump responded, "I wasn't involved in his statement of financial condition so I can't say what it took into account or didn't take into account."

Solomon pressed her about the documents, asking, "Did you know whether he had personal financial statements, Donald J. Trump?" Solomon asked.

"I'm not involved in his personal financial statements. I didn't know about his personal statements, per se, other than what you've showed me," Ivanka Trump responded.

"Did you have any role in preparing Donald J. Trump's statements of financial condition?"

"Not that I'm aware of," she replied.


Ivanka Trump sought lower net worth requirement for loan

In 2011, as the Trump Organization sought financing for its purchase and renovation of the Doral golf club in Miami, Deutsche Bank agreed to loan Trump the necessary funds, with one critical catch -- the deal would be secured by Donald Trump's net worth.

"Is DJT willing to do that? Also, the net worth covenants and DJT indebtedness limitations would seem to me to be a problem?" Trump Organization executive Jason Greenblatt wrote in an email to Ivanka Trump and CFO Allen Weisselberg that was entered into evidence. The arrangement required Trump to maintain a net worth of $3 billion.

Trump's 2011 statement of financial condition, one of the documents the New York attorney general alleges contained fraudulent valuations, listed his net worth as more than $4 billion. However Ivanka Trump asked Deutsche Bank to lower the amount of wealth her father would have to maintain, according to an email exchange entered into evidence.

"As I said before, I don't recall the net worth covenant," Ivanka Trump testified.

She proposed $2 billion, emails show. Deutsche Bank ultimately settled for $2.5 billion.


Courtroom reflects Ivanka Trump's calm demeanor

Ivanka Trump flashed a smile at Judge Engoron when he recommended to her that, when reviewing evidence, it would be easier for her to look at the big screen set up in the courtroom instead of the papers in her lap.

"Thank you," she said with a laugh.

Unlike her father, who roiled the judge and tangled with state attorneys during his testimony Monday, Ivanka Trump is reserved and soft spoken on the stand, at times speaking so quietly in answering questions that it's hard to hear her.

The entire courtroom appears to be following her tone, with Judge Engoron and attorneys from both side conducting themselves calmly even when objections are raised.


Asked about 2011 emails, Ivanka Trump says they're hard to recall

Asked about business negotiations from 2011, Ivanka Trump has been struggling to recall the details of her interactions from 12 years ago.

"I don't recall, sitting here today, seeing these terms from 2011," she responded after being shown a 2011 email to an Inbursa Bank representative. "I don't remember having these conversations other than on a very high level."

She has been punctuating her testimony with subtle indicators of how far removed she is from deals and documents discussed in court.

"I believe it was the ninth month of pregnancy of my oldest daughter," she remarked after she was shown another document from 2011.

When asked about other documents, she added it was hard to remember "after all these years removed" or that she can only "recall you reminding me of that discussion."


Trump's business drew little scrutiny from bank, defense says

Deutsche Bank was a serious company in business with Donald Trump to make money, defense attorney Jesus Suarez said during his cross examination of former Deutsche Bank executive Nicholas Haigh.

At the height of its relationship with the Trump Organization the company loaned Trump over $378 million, and failed to commission independent appraisals of Trump's properties, Haigh acknowledged. While the bank listed lower estimates for the value of Trump's assets year after year, it continued to do business with Trump and his company.

"We ... the bank hadn't done all the due diligence one would do in the sense of the opinion of value you see in an appraisal," Haigh said, at one point agreeing with the defense's characterization that the bank's internal value services group conducted "sanity checks'' on the numbers.

The direct examination of Haigh by state attorney Kevin Wallace also left a central question about Deutsche Bank's activity unanswered.

In a letter to the court and in previous arguments, lawyers for the attorney general suggested that Haigh might have turned away Trump's business if he had known that Trump's assets were inflated in value.

"As this Court noted during summary judgment arguments, Mr. Haigh testified during OAG's investigation that he may not have authorized lending to the borrower if he had at that time been aware of the inflated asset values contained in Mr. Trump's SFCs [statements of financial condition]," a lawyer for the attorney general wrote to the court in a letter last week.

Wallace never directly posed the hypothetical to Haigh during his direct examination, leaving the question unresolved.

Court subsequently adjourned for the day, with Suarez telling the court he plans to continue his cross examination of Haigh through Thursday afternoon.