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.
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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
Cohen details how he says he inflated Trump's statements
According to Michael Cohen, the process of "reverse engineering" Donald Trump's 2011 financial statement began with a phone call.
"Mr. Trump would like to see you," Trump's executive assistant told Cohen, according to his testimony today.
Cohen testified that he then personally met with Trump and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to begin the process of inflating Trump's financial statement.
"I am actually not worth 4.5 billion. I am really worth six," Trump directed him and Weisselberg, according to Cohen.
Following that meeting, he and Weisselberg engaged in a multi-day process of marking up Trump's financial statement with red ink to eventually increase Trump's total net worth to Trump's "desired number," Cohen said.
Apart from the marked-up document, which Cohen said was scanned, he left behind no contemporaneous notes, text messages, or emails about the process.
"What is the highest price per square foot achieved in the city," Cohen described about the process to determine comparable properties to value Trump assets. "We would use those numbers to inflate these numbers."
'He is not a credible witness,' Trump says of Cohen
Minutes after Michael Cohen alleged he was tasked with reverse engineering Trump Organization financial statements, Donald Trump continued his attacks on his former lawyer while exiting the courtroom during a break in the trial.
"His record is a horrible one. All you have to do is ask the Southern District of New York," Trump said in reference to Cohen's 2018 guilty plea on charges related to his role in making hush payments to two woman who claimed to have long-denied affairs with Trump.
"He is not a credible witness," Trump said.
During Cohen's testimony, Trump also took to social media to post flattering quotes Cohen gave to news outlets about Trump in 2011 and 2016.
"He's more like a patriarch, a mentor. These qualities make him very endearing to me, which is why I am so fiercely loyal to him and committed to protecting him at all costs," Cohen told the New York Times in 2016 -- which was posted by Trump on Truth Social minutes after Cohen began his testimony.
The former president told reporters he wasn't concerned about Cohen being on the stand.
"We're not worried at all about his testimony," Trump said.
Cohen, exiting court separately during the break, quipped that seeing Trump again after five years was a "heck of a reunion."
Cohen says he was tasked to 'reverse engineer' asset values
Michael Cohen, under questioning from state attorneys, testified it was his job to help Trump look as rich as he wanted to.
"I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected, and my responsibility -- along with Allen Weisselberg -- predominantly was to reverse engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets in order to achieve the number that Mr. Trump had tasked us with," Cohen said, referring to former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Cohen joined the Trump Organization in 2007 as executive vice president and special counsel to Trump, putting him "directly under Mr. Trump" in the corporate hierarchy, Cohen said.
"I reported and only handled work for Mr. Trump and so I was his special counsel. Whatever issues he had, whatever created ire for him, he would bring it to me to resolve," Cohen said.
"So the only person who asked you to perform work was Donald J. Trump?" state attorney Colleen Faherty asked.
"Correct," Cohen responded.
Cohen affirmed his involvement in preparing Trump's statements of financial condition and told the judge those documents were "shared with third parties," including insurance brokers.
Cohen recounts his criminal history
Michael Cohen, hunched slightly on the witness stand, began his testimony by outlining the federal charges to which he pleaded guilty and served prison time -- including tax evasion and lying to Congress -- as Trump leaned back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest.
Once Trump's self-described bulldog, Cohen has not shared a room with Trump in five years, he said prior to his testimony.
As he recounted his criminal history, Cohen invoked the names of Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal, two women who in 2016 were paid to keep quiet about long-denied affairs with Trump. Defense attorney Chris Kise moved to strike the answer but the judge overruled the objection.
Colleen Faherty, an attorney with the state attorney general's office, asked Cohen if his crimes occurred while he was employed by Trump, to which Cohen responded "Yes" and affirmed his employer was "Donald J. Trump."
Bank's loans to Trump were 'good credit decision,' says exec
Deutsche Bank's $378 million in loans to the Trump Organization was a "good credit decision," the bank's former risk management executive told the court at the end of more than a day of testimony.
"I think we did a reasonably thorough analysis of the information," former Deutsche Bank executive Nicholas Haigh testified under cross-examination by the defense.
An internal Deutsche Bank group evaluated Trump's financial information, personally visited Trump Organization offices to review bank and brokerage records, and conducted some appraisals of property explicitly used as collateral, according to Haigh.
Though the value that Deutsche Bank determined for the properties often differed by hundreds of millions of dollars compared to the Trump-provided value, the entities continued to have what internal bank documents described as a "long and satisfactory relationship."
"Using a Deutsche Bank-adjusted value for the assets, the net worth still exceeded $2.5 billion," Haigh said, referring to Trump's net worth as it related to a loan covenant.
When Trump decided to run for president and won the election, Deutsche Bank was supportive of the business relationship, though management was careful to monitor their particularly high-profile client, according to internal bank documents presented at trial.
"Note that the relationship continues to be monitored at the highest levels of senior management within the firm and any issues arising from the Guarantor's status as President of the United States are immediately addressed, taken to the appropriate Reputation Risk committee, and discussed with appropriate legal counsel," a credit report said.
When asked directly if the decision to work with Trump was a "good credit decision" by defense attorney Clifford Robert, Haigh responded, "I generally agree with that."
During redirect questioning, state attorney Kevin Wallace stopped short of directly asking Haigh if he would have still done business with Trump had he known about the inflated value of Trump's assets. But he asked Haigh whether Trump's financial information could have been incomplete.
"You have no way of knowing if there was information that wasn't provided to you?" Wallace asked.
"That is correct," Haigh said, marking the end of his questioning.