Judge orders Trump and companies to pay nearly $355 million in civil fraud trial

Judge Arthur Engoron hit Donald Trump with his biggest punishment to date on Friday, in a ruling that fined the former president $355 million for fraudulently inflating the values of his properties.

Engoron found Trump liable for fraud, conspiracy and issuing false financial statements and false business records, and he barred him from serving as director of a company in New York for three years. But while he stopped short of dissolving the Trump Organization altogether, Engoron issued a blistering 93-page opinion that painted the former president as unremorseful and highly likely to commit fraud again.

Here are key takeaways from the decision:

Get up to speed on the ruling and more takeaways.

Former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants will likely need to come up with the full judgment of $355 million ordered by Judge Arthur Engoron Friday, with potentially more in interest, in order to move forward with an appeal, sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to CNN.

Those sources explained that this is the typical procedure required by the law, though some of the details, including the total amount to be frozen, could change. 

Trump and his lawyers said Friday they intend to appeal the decision.

That money will be held in an account pending the appellate process, which could take years to litigate.

The 9% interest Judge Engoron ordered Trump and his company to pay on the nearly $355 million judgment will continue to accrue until it’s paid per the order. 

Typically, the state requires a notice of appeal within 30 days of the judgment.

In his remarks Friday evening, President Donald Trump claimed, as he has before, that President Joe Biden was a hidden hand behind the civil fraud case in New York.

“All comes out of the DOJ, it all comes out of Biden,” Trump said. “It’s a witch hunt against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen.” 

Facts First: There is no basis for Trump’s claim that Biden or the Justice Department is behind the civil case. The case was brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James – after an investigation she began in 2019, roughly two years before Biden became president. As Trump has repeatedly noted, James, a Democrat, campaigned in 2018 on a pledge to pursue Trump. Also, federal agencies do not have jurisdiction over state cases like this.

James filed the lawsuit that led to this trial in September 2022 – about two months before Trump launched his 2024 campaign.

In remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump slammed Judge Arthur Engoron, New York Attorney General Letitia James and vowed to appeal Friday’s ruling that orders he and his companies pay nearly $355 million.

“It’s a very sad day for, in my opinion, the county,” the former president said speaking from Palm Beach, Florida.

“We’ll appeal, we’ll be successful, I think,” Trump said

More on the ruling: The ruling in the New York civil fraud case also says Trump will be barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in the state for three years, among other restrictions.

Earlier Friday, Trump called the ruling a sham on Truth Social.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.

Attorney General Letitia James celebrated today’s civil fraud ruling in remarks from New York, saying the court ruled “in favor of every hard-working American who plays by the rules.”

“Today justice has been served, today we proved that no one is above the law. No matter how rich, powerful, or politically connected you are, everyone must play by the same rules,” the attorney general said.

James added, “Donald Trump may have authored the ‘Art of the Deal,’ but he perfected the art of the steal.”

“And so after 11 weeks of trial, we showed the staggering extent of his fraud, and exactly how Donald Trump and the other defendants deceived banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions for their own personal gain,” she continued. “We proved just how much Donald Trump, his family and his company unjustly benefited from his fraud.”

James said, “I want to be clear, white collar financial fraud is not a victimless crime. When the powerful break the law, and take more than their fair share, there are fewer resources available for working people, small businesses and families.”

The attorney general thanked those in her office who helped work on the case.

“The scale and the scope of Donald Trump’s fraud is staggering, and so to is his ego, and his belief that the rules do not apply to him. Today, we are holding Donald Trump accountable,” James said.

James did not take questions from reporters and departed the room directly after her remarks, which largely reflected the written statement issued by her office earlier Friday. 

The New York judge criticized one of the defenses put up by Donald Trump’s lawyers in the civil fraud case, writing in his ruling that claiming “everybody does it” is no reason to get away with fraud.

In fact, Judge Arthur Engoron argued it’s all the reason to be more vigilant in actually enforcing the rules. 

“Here, despite the false financial statements, it is undisputed that defendants have made all required payments on time; the next group of lenders to receive bogus statements might not be so lucky. New York means business in combating business fraud,” the judge said.

Known for his colorful writing, the judge also quoted an “ancient maxim” before saying the frauds at issue in this case “shock the conscience.”

“As an ancient maxim has it, de minimis non curat lex, the law is not concerned with trifles. Neither is this Court,” Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in his ruling. “But that is not what we have here.” “The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” the judge wrote.

Remember: Trump’s attorneys argued during the trial that the attorney general’s claims against Trump had no victims — the banks were paid back and were eager to do business with Trump.

But the attorney general argued, and the judge agreed, that the fraudulent loans Trump received at lower rates had an impact on the marketplace. Plus, the law used to bring the claims against Trump does not require there to be victims of fraud in a traditional sense. 

Legal experts say former President Donald Trump is likely to use a bond, secured with his assets as collateral, as the first step in satisfying the judgment in the New York civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

On Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his companies to pay nearly $355 million, which Trump has vowed to appeal.

Under a so-called appeal bond, Trump would put up a percentage of the judgment and a third-party company that is the guarantor “is on the hook for the full amount,” said Joshua Naftalis, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in New York.

“It’s not just the president: Anybody faced with this size of a judgment would probably go the appeal-bond route, because to put up that kind of money is enormous,” Naftalis said. “That could be his entire cash position.”

What Trump has available: It’s difficult to determine the full assets available to Trump, because his business is a privately held concern and does not regularly file reports with regulators. In a deposition taken last year as part of the case brought by James, the former president said his company had more than $400 million in available cash.

Adam Leitman Bailey, a real estate attorney in New York, said Trump likely would have to put up 10% of the judgment in cash, plus an additional fee. 

In January, a jury in a civil defamation case ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, on top of the $5 million verdict she had already won against him last year.

Donald Trump’s eldest sons — who’ve essentially run the Trump Organization since 2017 — are barred from serving as executives in New York for two years, according to Judge Arthur Engoron’s order.

The Trumps will have to navigate the two-year penalty as they sort out the future of the family-run real estate company that also hasn’t filled the chief financial officer or controller positions vacated by former Trump Org. execs Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney.  

During closing arguments last month, Engoron questioned whether the attorney general presented any evidence that Trump’s eldest sons knew that there was fraud going on at the company — but ultimately found them liable for issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, and conspiracy claims. 

The judge knocked Eric Trump’s credibility in his ruling, pointing out inconsistent testimony he gave at trial.  He “begrudgingly” conceded at trial that he actually knew about his father’s statements as early as 2013 “upon being confronted with copious documentary evidence conclusively demonstrating otherwise,” the judge wrote. 

Engoron also said Eric Trump unconvincingly tried to distance himself from some appraisals of Trump Org properties that offered a much lower valuation than reported on Donald Trump’s financial statements. 

More on the ruling: Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were both ordered to pay more than $4 million in disgorgement, or “ill-gotten” profits, they personally received from the 2022 sale of Trump’s hotel at the Old Post Office building in Washington DC. 

Ivanka Trump gets to keep her profits on the building sale because she was dismissed as a defendant in the case by an appeals court ahead of trial. But that didn’t stop Engoron from weighing in on her trial testimony, calling it “suspect.” 

Judge Arthur Engoron hit Donald Trump with his biggest punishment to date Friday, in a ruling that fined the former president nearly $355 million for fraudulently inflating the values of his properties.

The dollar amount dwarfed the verdict against Trump issued last month in the defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll — an $83 million judgment — hitting home just how much the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case threatens Trump’s business empire.

Engoron found Trump liable for fraud, conspiracy, issuing false financial statements, and falsifying business records, barring him from serving as director of a company in New York for three years.

While the judge pulled back from trying to dissolve the Trump Organization altogether, Engoron issued a blistering 93-page opinion that painted the former president as unremorseful and highly likely to commit fraud again.

“This Court finds that defendants are likely to continue their fraudulent ways unless the Court grants significant injunctive relief,” Engoron wrote. 

The judge also ruled that Trump will have to pay millions in interest on the judgement amount.

Donald Trump’s attorneys have already appealed Judge Arthur Engoron’s 2023 summary judgment that found the former president liable for fraud — and the former president’s attorneys are already planning to appeal Friday’s decision, too.

Trump attorney Christopher Kise responded to Engoron’s ruling in a statement Friday, saying the court “ignored the law, ignored the facts.”

Kise added Trump will appeal and “remains confident the Appellate Division will ultimately correct the innumerable and catastrophic errors made.”

During the 11-week trial, Trump’s attorneys repeatedly criticized Engoron’s handling of the case and raised objections “for the record” and a potential appeal. 

Engoron often acknowledged the likelihood of an appeal during the trial.

The ruling is likely to be tied up in the courts on appeal for a long time, and Engoron’s ruling Friday was written with an eye toward surviving an appellate challenge.

In his ruling that orders Donald Trump to pay nearly $355 million in profits from his fraud, Judge Arthur Engoron also ruled that the former president will have to pay interest on that money, dating back several years.

The interest could add close to $100 million to the amount Trump is liable for.

The judge broke down the $354,868,678 in disgorgement into three parts:

He wrote that the defendants’ fraud saved them about $168 million in interest, fining Trump and his companies that amount. The former president will have to pay interest dating to March 2019 for those ill-gotten gains.  Engoron also ruled that Trump and his companies were liable for over $126 million in ill-gotten profits from the sale of the Old Post Office in Washington, DC, a contract the judge says “was obtained through the use of false SFC (statements of financial condition).” On those profits, Trump will have to pay interest dating to May 2022. And the judge ruled that Trump and his companies were liable for $60 million in profits from the sale of Ferry Point in the Bronx. On this part of the verdict, Trump will have to pay interest dating to June 2023.

All of the prejudgment interest owed “shall be at the rate of nine percent per annum, except where otherwise provided by statute,” the judge wrote.  

In a statement on X, New York Attorney General Letitia James cited a higher total amount by including the interest as well as the money owed by Trump’s two adult sons and former CFO.

“In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself,” she wrote. “Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and his former executives must pay over $450 million in disgorgement and interest.”

Former President Donald Trump on Friday blasted a ruling by a judge ordering him and his companies to pay nearly $355 million in the New York civil fraud case and continued claiming, without evidence, he had been politically targeted because he’s running for president.  

“This ‘decision’ is a Complete and Total SHAM,” Trump posted on Truth Social in his first public comments following the ruling.  

Trump said in a separate post, “The Democrat Club-controlled Judge Engoron has already been reversed four times on this case, a shameful record, and he will be reversed again. We cannot let injustice stand, and will fight Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized persecution at every step.”

“The Justice System in New York State, and America as a whole, is under assault by partisan, deluded, biased Judges and Prosecutors. Racist, Corrupt A.G. Tish James has been obsessed with “Getting Trump” for years, and used Crooked New York State Judge Engoron to get an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James celebrated Friday’s ruling against the Trumps.

In a separate statement, she referred to the order against Trump and his companies as a “tremendous victory.” The attorney general said the ruling proves “no one is above the law.”

James is expected to speak to reporters this afternoon.

While Judge Arthur Engoron did not dissolve the business certificates for the Trump Organization, as he had initially laid out, he did order several restrictions and stipulations to be enacted for the next few years.

Engoron wrote that a monitor he put in place for the company was to stay in place for at least three years.

The monitor, who has access to records and the internal workings of the business, is a retired federal judge who specialized in high-stakes, high-profile matters, according to Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst.

The monitor issued a report a few weeks ago that said she found inconsistencies in her initial review of the company. That could lead to more trouble for the Trump Organization, Honig said.

“But if the goal is to rehabilitate the company, then this is the right person for it,” Honig said.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.

Judge Arthur Engoron cited Donald Trump’s valuation of Mar-a-Lago on his financial statements as one of the properties where the former president committed fraud — while also chiding the former president for claiming his Florida resort was worth more than $1 billion. 

Engoron wrote that Trump’s 2002 deed gave away the right to use Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence, meaning that Trump paid significantly lower property taxes and that it could not be valued as highly as he claimed.

In a footnote, Engoron noted of Trump and the deed: “A fact of which he is well aware, having signed the deed himself.”

“There is no legal gray area surrounding the permanent nature of the deed restrictions,” Engoron later wrote in his ruling. “Accordingly, there can be no mistake that Donald Trump’s valuation of Mar-a-Lago from 2011-2021 was fraudulent.”

One Democratic lawmaker who questioned Michel Cohen at a hearing where he testified that Donald Trump had inflated his assets called the ruling appropriate and said the evidence against the former president and others is “pretty overwhelming.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the ruling was “a natural and logical extension of what happened back in February 2019” during Cohen’s testimony.

Some background: During that hearing, Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, testified about how the Trump Organization manipulated figures to change the value of the company.

He also indicated that his former client potentially committed a variety of financial crimes from bank to tax fraud in order to secure loans and even to move up in Forbes magazine’s rankings of the very rich.

While calling her a “thoughtful” and “poised witness,” Judge Arthur Engoron questioned Ivanka Trump’s inability to recall details of several projects she worked on despite documents presented in court showing otherwise.

Engoron specifically mentioned her inability to recollect her work on the Old Post Office building in Washington, DC, and the loans issued by Deutsche Bank.

More background: Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s eldest daughter, was dismissed as a defendant in this case by an appellate court ruling in June, but was subpoenaed to testify by the New York attorney general’s office.

Judge Arthur Engoron recapped Michael Cohen’s theatrical trial testimony, acknowledging Cohen’s credibility issues but saying he ultimately believed him.

“Michael Cohen told the truth,” the judge wrote of Donald Trump’s former lawyer. “Although the animosity between the witness and the defendant is palpable, providing Cohen with an incentive to lie, the Court found his testimony credible, based on the relaxed manner in which he testified, the general plausibility of his statements, and, most importantly, the way his testimony was corroborated by other trial evidence.”

Engoron pushed back on Trump’s narrative that Cohen was a star witness for the attorney general’s office.

“Michael Cohen was an important witness on behalf of the plaintiff, although hardly the linchpin that defendants have attempted to portray him to be,” Engoron said.

The judge said the testimony from Trump’s former fixer was compromised by his previous perjury plea in another case and some “seeming contradictions” in what he said at this trial, but Engoron believed Cohen when he testified that “Trump did not expressly direct him to reverse engineer financial statements, he ordered him to do so indirectly, in his ‘mob voice.’”

Judge Arthur Engoron found Donald Trump liable for issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, and conspiracy, all part of a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

James accused Trump and his co-defendants of fraudulently inflating the value of his assets to obtain more favorable loan and insurance rates.

Remember: Before the three-month-long trial started, Engoron had already found Trump and his co-defendants liable for persistent and repeated fraud.

Judge Arthur Engoron found former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and former controller Jeffrey McConney liable for multiple civil fraud counts in New York, including issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy. 

He permanently banned Weisselberg and McConney from serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or business, and banned them from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. 

Weisselberg was also fined $1 million in the ruling. 

Donald Trump’s adult sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for two years.

Meanwhile, the former president is barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in the state for three years.

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Donald Trump and his companies to pay nearly $355 million in a ruling in the New York civil fraud case.

Read the entire ruling below:

Judge Arthur Engoron also entered an order barring former President Donald Trump from applying for loans from any financial institution registered with the New York Department of Financial Services for three years.

The former president is also barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in the state for three years.

Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, liable for a host of civil fraud counts in New York, including issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records and conspiracy.  

He ordered them each to pay $4 million for their personal profits from the fraud. 

In addition, Engoron fined former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg $1 million. 

Judge Arthur Engoron, in his 92-page ruling, had some sharp barbs for former President Donald Trump, his sons and the other defendants.

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” the judge wrote.

“They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again.

“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.” 

Donald Trump’s attorney and legal spokesperson Alina Habba in a statement responded to Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling on Friday calling the decision a “manifest injustice — plain and simple,” and expressed confidence that the decision would be overturned on appeal.

Habba said that “given the grave stakes,” they plan to appeal.

While Judge Arthur Engoron barred Donald Trump from serving as an officer or director of a New York corporation in New York for three years, he did not dissolve the business certificates for the Trump Organization, as he had initially laid out in his summary judgment issued last year.

Engoron wrote that his September order was “modified solely to the extent of vacating the directive to cancel defendants’ business certificates.”

Engoron wrote that a monitor he put in place for the company was to stay in place for at least three years, and that an independent director of compliance should be installed at the company’s expense.

Judge Arthur Engoron has barred former President Donald Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years.

Judge Arthur Engoron minced no words about his feelings of Donald Trump and the other defendants.

“In order to borrow more and at lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements,” he wrote.

“When confronted at trial with the statements, defendants’ fact and expert witnesses simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences.”

He added: “As detailed herein, this Court now finds defendants liable, continues the appointment of an Independent Monitor, orders the installation of an Independent Director of Compliance, and limits defendants’ right to conduct business in New York for a few years.”

Donald Trump’s adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, were ordered to pay $4 million each after Judge Arthur Engoron found them liable for multiple fraud counts.

Judge Arthur Engoron has ordered former President Donald Trump and his companies to pay nearly $355 million.

Trump is expected to appeal the decision and seek a stay to halt its enforcement while his appeal is considered.

Judge Arthur Engoron has issued a ruling in Donald Trump’s’ New York civil fraud trial.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking for $370 million  from Trump and the co-defendants in disgorgement – or ill-gotten gains, alleging he filed fraudulent financial statements that allowed him to obtain loans and insurance policies at more favorable rates. 

The case goes to the heart of Trump’s image as a successful billionaire and includes accusations of fraud regarding his Trump Tower apartment, Mar-a-Lago estate and several golf courses, among others. 

Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his co-defendants engaged in fraud and ordered the cancelation of any business certificates they hold in New York, an action that is on hold pending Trump’s appeal. 

This ruling will address six additional claims against some or all of the defendants including conspiracy, issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records and insurance fraud. 

The New York attorney general also asked the court to bar Trump and some of the co-defendants from the real estate business in New York and being able to apply for a loan from banks registered in the state, among other bans that could significantly impact him and his companies. 

Donald Trump brought the campaign trail to the courthouse during closing arguments of his $370 million New York civil fraud trial on January 11, delivering campaign speeches both inside and outside the courtroom to attack the case against him and the attorney general who brought it.

Trump’s decision to launch into a monologue at the conclusion of his lawyers’ closing arguments reflected the fact that the civil fraud trial has been a serious threat to Trump’s business and brand – New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to bar Trump from doing business in the state – as well as how Trump is eager to take advantage of the situation as he runs for president.

Here are key takeaways from the final day of the trial:

A judge ruled former President and GOP front-runner Donald Trump will face his first criminal trial with jury selection on March 25 in New York.

The logistics of the trial are coming into focus as attorneys continue to hammer out scheduling in court.

There will be 18 jurors — a panel of 12 with six alternates — seated in the jury box, Judge Juan Merchan confirmed in court on Thursday.

Court will not be in session on Wednesdays, and there will not be court on April 29. Court will go from 9:30 a.m. ET until at least 4:30 p.m. ET, if not later, Merchan said.

Merchan also said he would try to work with attorneys on scheduling around the Jewish holidays in April, but he said they would not take an entire week off from the trial.

New York’s top court dismissed an appeal from Donald Trump’s lawyers earlier in January to remove the gag order placed on the former president in the New York Attorney General’s civil fraud trial.

New York’s appellate court in November 2023 had reinstated the order from Judge Arthur Engoron, which prohibited Trump and his attorneys from making public statements about the courtroom staff in the $370 million trial that wrapped up in January.

The New York Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal, stating that “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.”

What the order does: The order, initially issued by Engoron in October, bars Trump from making public statements about court staff after Trump made numerous comments about a clerk, who the former president said is biased against him. The judge had twice fined Trump for violating the order.

Trump’s lawyers have complained about the conduct of both the attorney general’s office and the judge and his clerk during the three-month trial – and they’ve already made clear they plan to appeal Engoron’s ruling.

After a contentious 11-week trial, Judge Arthur Engoron will rule on how much money Donald Trump and his co-defendants owe for alleged fraud as well as whether the former president can still do business in the state. He has already ruled that Trump engaged in fraud.

The civil lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, is seeking $370 million from Trump and the other defendants (the figure was originally $250 million). She alleges that Trump filed fraudulent financial statements that allowed him to obtain loans and insurance at more favorable rates.

The trial goes to the heart of Trump’s image as a successful billionaire and includes accusations of fraud regarding his Trump Tower apartment, Mar-a-Lago estate and several golf courses, among other assets.

James is asking for $370 million from Trump and the co-defendants in disgorgement – or ill-gotten gains. Engoron has already ruled that Trump has engaged in fraud and ordered the dissolution of his business empire, an action that is on hold pending Trump’s appeal. Engoron canceled business certificates for many of Trump’s entities in New York, including the Trump Organization (a sprawling entity comprised of 500 limited liability companies).

Engoron also called for a receiver to oversee the dissolution of the entities, which include buildings such as Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street and the Seven Springs family compound in Westchester County, New York.

His upcoming ruling will address six additional claims including conspiracy, issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records and insurance fraud.

The attorney general’s office argued in its closing presentation that Trump “acted with intent” to fraudulently inflate the value of his assets in his financial statements.