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Former U.S. President Donald Trump and his lawyers Christopher Kise and Alina Habba attend the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial on Jan. 11 in New York City. Shannon Stapleton/Getty Images hide caption

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and his lawyers Christopher Kise and Alina Habba attend the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial on Jan. 11 in New York City.

A New York judge has ordered former President Donald Trump and executives at the Trump Organization to pay nearly $364 million in a civil fraud case, handing a win to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump and his associates after a three-year investigation.

The Friday decision from Judge Arthur Engoron orders Trump and his flagship organization to pay the bulk of that amount: nearly $355 million. Trump's two sons and co-defendants, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., are each liable for $4 million. Allen Weisselberg, a former Trump Organization executive, is liable for $1 million. The total is even higher with interest more than $450 million overall, according to the attorney general's office.

"Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin," Engoron wrote in the court filing. "Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways."

Trump himself called the decision a "Complete and Total SHAM" in an emailed statement and repeated his accusation that the justice system overall is politically biased against him.

James, however, declared that "justice has been served."

"This is a tremendous victory for this state, this nation, and for everyone who believes that we all must play by the same rules even former presidents," the state attorney general said in a statement.

The judge also decided to limit Trump and his co-defendants' ability to do business in the Empire State. Trump and his companies are prohibited from serving as an officer or director of any New York business or applying for loans for three years. His sons are limited from similar leadership roles for two years.

Jeffrey McConney, ex-controller of the Trump Organization and also a defendant, was not ordered to pay any amount, but he and Weisselberg are permanently barred from serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered or licensed in New York state.

"This Court is not constituted to judge morality; it is constituted to find facts and apply the law. In this particular case, in applying the law to the facts, the Court intends to protect the integrity of the financial marketplace and, thus, the public as a whole," Engoron wrote.

The ruling comes at a crucial time for Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Engoron's decision comes a day after another judge set the date for what could be Trump's first criminal trial, related to hush money payments issued during the 2016 election.

He is facing a combined 91 state and federal charges, including several related to his role to stay in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. But the charges have done little to dent Trump's popularity among his base. Instead, the charges appear to have bolstered his credentials, potentially setting up a rematch with Biden.

Trump and his two older sons are accused of knowingly committing fraud by submitting financial statements that inflated the value of their properties and other assets. The lawsuit alleges that from 2011 to 2021, Donald Trump and his organization created more than 200 false valuations to inflate his net worth by billions of dollars with the goal of getting better business, insurance and banking deals.

Engoron had already determined that there was fraud and that the former president, his sons and other executives were liable.

Throughout the trial, legal teams argued whether the value of notable Trump properties, such as Manhattan's Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street, were inflated deliberately.

Documents shown during trial ranged from spreadsheets to signed financial statements. In one example, the attorney general's legal team showed that Trump's triplex in his eponymously named Manhattan building was marked as being almost 11,000 square feet in 1994 and later as 30,000 square feet. A Forbes magazine article in 2017 originally shed light on the discrepancy.

The former president and three of his children, Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, who is not a defendant, all took the stand to testify about the valuation process and their involvement in the Trump Organization. Testifying in November, Trump argued that the estimated property values were actually conservative, and he said that he relied on others to compile the statements. His sons also testified that they relied on others, including their accounting firm, to come up with the numbers even as emails and documents showed the Trumps ultimately approved them.

In closing briefs, Trump's team doubled down on the argument that the three members of the Trump family did not have knowledge or involvement in the creation, preparation or use of the fraudulent financial statements.

Witnesses included former Trump allies such as Michael Cohen and Weisselberg, who was also a defendant.

Cohen testified that it was his responsibility, along with that of Weisselberg, "to reverse-engineer the very different asset classes, increase those assets in order to achieve the numbers" Trump had asked for.

Weisselberg, however, testified that he couldn't remember whether he discussed the financial statements with Trump as they were finalized.

The decision on Friday comes as Trump continues to campaign for the presidency. He will likely appeal this ruling, as he has in the other cases where he has suffered legal setbacks. It may take years before he parts with any money in the case.

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N.Y. judge orders Trump and executives to pay $364 million in civil fraud case - NPR

During closing arguments at Donald J. Trumps civil fraud trial, Arthur F. Engoron, the judge who has overseen the case for more than three years, made what might have been an unusual comment for any other jurist.

Justice Engoron, a lean 74-year-old with an unruly mop of white hair, acknowledged that his control of the courtroom had not been perfect.

He had allowed repetitive objections from Mr. Trumps lawyers, despite protests by the New York attorney generals office, which brought the case. He had often ignored Mr. Trumps violations of courtroom decorum. At one point, the judge recalled, he had even let a witness answer his mobile phone while on the stand.

Despite all that, he warned the lawyers, I dont want you to think Im a pushover.

No one is likely to think so now. Justice Engoron on Friday ruled against the former president, finding that he had orchestrated a conspiracy to inflate his net worth, penalizing him $355 million and instituting a three-year ban from running his family business. Despite his absurdist humor and good cheer, the judge showed himself in the end to be a very serious man.

It was the culmination of what was surely one of the more intense periods of Justice Engorons professional life. During the trial, he contended with repeated anonymous antisemitic attacks on his family and on his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, and with threats to his own life. Last month, he was roused early one morning to find that a bomb squad had been dispatched to his Long Island home to respond to a report that turned out to be a hoax.

But despite the attacks, and his own clear desire for harmonious proceedings, Justice Engoron consistently came down hard on the former president. On Friday, he continued his streak of lacerating rulings.

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Who Is Arthur Engoron, the Judge Who Penalized Donald Trump? - The New York Times

Former President Donald J. Trump was penalized $355 million and banned for three years from serving in any top roles at a New York company, including his own, in a ruling on Friday by Justice Arthur F. Engoron. The decision comes after the state Attorney General Letitia James sued Mr. Trump, members of his family and his company in 2022.

The ruling expands on Justice Engorons decision last fall, which found that Mr. Trumps financial statements were filled with fraudulent claims. Mr. Trump will appeal the financial penalty and is likely to appeal other restrictions; he has already appealed last falls ruling.

The New York Times is annotating the document.

Download the original PDF.

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A 20-year veteran of the New York judiciary, Justice Engoron oversaw the monthslong trial. Due to a powerful state law requiring that the matter be handled as a bench trial, there was no jury in this case.

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This ruling is a result of a 2022 lawsuit filed by New Yorks attorney general, Letitia James, against Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization; his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; the companys former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and former controller Jeffrey McConney; and several of their related entities. Mr. Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump, was also initially a defendant until an appeals court dismissed the case against her.

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The law under which Ms. James sued, known by its shorthand 63(12), requires the plaintiff to show a defendants conduct was deceptive. If that standard is met, a judge can impose severe punishment, including forfeiting the money obtained through fraud. Ms. James has also used this law against the oil company ExxonMobil, the tobacco brand Juul and the pharma executive Martin Shkreli.

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Justice Engoron is now providing a background of this case. This ruling comes after a three-year investigation by the attorney generals office and the conclusion of a trial that ended last month. But this likely wont be Mr. Trumps last word on the matter he will appeal the financial penalty and is likely to appeal other restrictions, as he has already appealed other rulings.

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In late 2022, Justice Engoron assigned a former federal judge, Barbara Jones, to serve as a monitor at the Trump Organization and tasked her with keeping an eye on the company and its lending relationships. Last month, she issued a report citing inconsistencies in its financial reporting, which may reflect a lack of adequate internal controls.

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Here, Justice Engoron is laying out the laws he considered in his ruling beyond 63(12). The attorney generals lawsuit included allegations of violations of falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud and related conspiracy offenses.

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For over 50 pages, Justice Engoron describes his conclusions about the testimony of all of the witnesses who spoke during the trial.

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For more than a dozen pages, Justice Engoron provides background on specific assets that Mr. Trump included in his annual financial statements.

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The judge is clarifying that Ms. James had to prove her claims by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning she had to demonstrate it was more likely than not that Mr. Trump and the co-defendants should be held liable. This is a lower standard than that of a criminal trial, which requires that evidence be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

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The Civil Fraud Ruling on Donald Trump, Annotated - The New York Times

The $355 million penalty that a New York judge ordered Donald J. Trump to pay in his civil fraud trial might seem steep in a case with no victim calling for redress and no star witness pointing the finger at Mr. Trump. But a little-known 70-year-old state law made the punishment possible.

The law, often referred to by its shorthand, 63(12), which stems from its place in New Yorks rule book, is a regulatory bazooka for the states attorney general, Letitia James. Her office has used it to aim at a wide range of corporate giants: the oil company Exxon Mobil, the tobacco brand Juul and the pharma executive Martin Shkreli.

On Friday, the law enabled Ms. James to win an enormous victory against Mr. Trump. Along with the financial penalty, the judge barred Mr. Trump from running a business in New York for three years. His adult sons were barred for two years.

The judge also ordered a monitor, Barbara Jones, to assume more power over Mr. Trumps company, and asked her to appoint an independent executive to report to her from within the company.

A lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise, reacted with fury, saying the sobering future consequences of this tyrannical abuse of power do not just impact President Trump.

When a court willingly allows a reckless government official to meddle in the lawful, private and profitable affairs of any citizen based on political bias, Americas economic prosperity and way of life are at extreme risk of extinction, he said.

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Trump's Harsh Punishment Was Made Possible by This New York Law - The New York Times

The penalty caps a three-month trial in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Tish James. It comes just weeks after a federal jury in a separate case ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to the writer E. Jean Carroll over defamatory statements he made while president in response to her rape accusation.

And combined with the $5 million penalty Trump was ordered to pay to Carroll in a separate trial last year, it means the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary now owes $443.1 million in judgments. (Trump is appealing the earlier Carroll verdict, and he has vowed to appeal the verdicts in both the more recent Carroll trial and the civil fraud trial.)

Its not clear if Trump has enough cash on hand to pay those penalties without selling any assets, especially because with the interest Engoron ordered Trump to pay, the total tab in the civil fraud case alone could amount to more than $450 million, according to the attorney generals office.

In addition to the penalties aimed at Trump himself, Engoron imposed measures that may significantly alter the operations of the Trump family business, known as the Trump Organization. Engoron banned Trumps two adult sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who are executive vice presidents of the company, from running New York companies for two years and fined them more than $4 million each. And he ordered a court-appointed monitor to continue overseeing the companys operations for another three years, requiring the company to seek her approval prior to submitting any financial disclosure to a third party.

Engoron also fined former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg $1 million.

Trump railed about the verdict on social media. A lawyer for Trump, Chris Kise, said the former president plans to appeal the verdict, calling the decision a tyrannical abuse of power.

The Court today ignored the law, ignored the facts, and simply signed off on the Attorney Generals manifestly unjust political crusade against the front-running candidate for President of the United States, Kise said in a statement.

James called the ruling a tremendous victory for this state, this nation, and for everyone who believes that we all must play by the same rules even former presidents.

In a pretrial ruling last fall, Engoron found that Trump systematically inflated his assets on financial statements, so the trial focused largely on whether those fraudulent statements were used as a basis for banks like Deutsche Bank to give Trump preferential terms on loans that he wouldnt have received if his net worth had been lower.

Because it was a bench trial, meaning there was no jury, Engoron alone decided the verdict and the scope of the penalties. James had asked the judge to issue a $370 million penalty and for a permanent ban on Trump doing business in New York.

In his written decision Friday, Engoron took aim not only at Trump and the other defendants actions, but also at their reaction to the accusations contained in the lawsuit.

Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil posture that the evidence belies.

James case included accusations that Trumps financial statements overvalued several flagship properties, including his own triplex apartment in Trump Tower. According to evidence presented during the trial, Trumps financial statements claimed the apartment was 30,000 square feet, when the true size was just under 11,000 square feet. James lawyers introduced a document Trump signed in 1994 that provided the true size of the property.

Engoron also found that Trumps valuation of his Florida property Mar-a-Lago was fraudulent from 2011 to 2021 because his financial documents based the valuation on the premise that it could be sold to an individual as a private residence, even though its deed prohibited such use. There is no legal gray area surrounding the permanent nature of the deed restrictions, Engoron wrote.

Trumps primary defense, which he has repeated publicly and which he invoked during an angry and rambling turn on the witness stand, is that his financial statements contained very, very powerful disclaimers and therefore werent intended for use by banks or insurers.

The trial in state court in Manhattan was the first trial Trump attended since leaving office and the first at which he testified. Trumps adult children, Eric, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, also testified.

The trial was at times a raucous affair, punctuated by Trump and his lawyers repeated criticism of the judges principal law clerk, whom they disparaged as an improper influence on the judge and biased against the defense. Those criticisms, particularly a social media message Trump posted featuring a photo of the clerk, prompted the judge to implement a pair of gag orders one barring Trump from speaking about the clerk and the other preventing his lawyers from doing so.

The judge found Trump violated the gag order twice, fining him a total of $15,000. In evaluating the second violation, Engoron called Trump to the witness stand to testify, an unexpected turn that resulted in the judge finding that Trump was not credible as a witness.

In addition to his focus on the clerk, Trump frequently attacked Engoron himself throughout the trial, both in social media messages and to the judges face. During his testimony, Trump suggested one of Engorons pretrial rulings was very stupid and told him, Its a terrible thing youve done. You know nothing about me. Trump continually ignored the judges repeated instructions to provide direct answers to questions, instead giving rambling responses that often sounded more like clips of Trumps campaign rallies.

In his written decision on Friday, Engoron said he also found Trump testimony about the case itself to be unpersuasive.

Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial, Engoron wrote. His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility.

The trial also featured testimony from Trumps former fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen, who said that at Trumps instruction, he and Weisselberg reverse engineered Trumps net worth to meet their bosss demand for inflated figures.

Though Trumps lawyers took aim at Cohen, questioning him at length about having pleaded guilty to campaign finance crimes and perjury in federal cases, Engoron gave him the benefit of the doubt. In what, financial penalties aside, might inflict the biggest blow to Trumps ego, Engoron wrote that he found Cohens testimony credible.

A less-forgiving factfinder might have concluded differently, might not have believed a single word of a convicted perjurer, Engoron wrote. This factfinder does not believe that pleading guilty to perjury means that you can never tell the truth. Michael Cohen told the truth.

At the end of the trial, Trump even delivered his own unsanctioned closing argument in defiance of Engorons efforts to corral the former president, accusing Engoron of having his own agenda and berating the judge.

But in his ruling, Engoron got the last word and seized the opportunity to finally curtail Trump.

Defendants refusal to admit error indeed, to continue it, according to the Independent Monitor, Engoron wrote, constrains this Court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained.

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Trump ordered to pay over $350M for business fraud - POLITICO