New York: A local judge has dealt a blow to Donald Trump’s purse and ego, hitting him with a massive fine of over $350 million, depleting available cash in an election year and barring the billionaire real estate developer from doing business in New York State for three years.
State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron imposed the penalties on Friday on the leading candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination after having found him guilty of fraud in a civil case brought by the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, a Democrat.
She said that the fine and the interests on it amount to $450 million and will continue to increase until the fine is paid. Engoron said that the conduct of Trump and his associate in the case “borders on the pathological” because of their lack of remorse.
Trump hit back posting on the social media Truth Social that the ruling was “an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business.”
State Attorney General’s position is an elected office and James, a Democrat, called the verdict “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.”
A day earlier, in another blow to Trump, a New York Supreme Court ordered Trump’s trial in criminal fraud trial to start on March 25, in the middle of the campaign and in the week before the primaries – intraparty elections to select the Republican Party’s presidential nominee – in New York and four other states with 17 more to go.
In that case he is accused of criminally falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star to silence her claims she had had an affair with Trump.
With his assets amounting to billions tied up in real estate, the huge fine and the interests could wipe out Trump’s available cash as he campaigns for the party nomination, which he has virtually been assured of, and prepares to battle the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee President Joe Biden in less than nine months.
(Forbes, which dropped him from the list of the 400 richest, still estimated his wealth to be $2.6 billion last year, down from $3.2 billion the previous year when he made the roster.) (IANS)
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