By On Friday afternoon, Donald Trump received the worst news of his life. A judge in New York destroyed his business empire, which helped him launch into stardom, with a single ruling.
USA Today wrote that Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president and “his namesake company to pay $354 million in damages, with additional penalties against two of his sons, and barred them from conducting business in the state after committing rampant fraud by over-valuing his real estate empire.
‘The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,’ Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in a decision released Friday.
‘In order to borrow more and at lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements,’ Engoron said in a 92-page ruling.
The judge called the refusal of Trump and the others to admit errors in the financial statements ‘pathological.’ Engoron cited the tripling of the size of Trump’s penthouse at Trump Tower as one example.”
Such a heavy-handed ruling seemed extraordinary to some, especially supporters of Trump, since the fraud the former president allegedly committed did not have a clear victim. In fact, the supposed victim, the bank that made the loans based on fraud, testified on behalf of the former president’s defense.
Each Trump adult son was also ordered to pay $4 million.
The New York Post spoke to another business-mogul-turned-television-star, Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank” fame, about the ruling, and “Mr. Beautiful” held nothing back.
In a scathing rebuke of a New York Judge’s decision to fine Donald Trump a staggering $355 million, the entrepreneur and media personality Kevin O’Leary minced no words, denouncing the ruling as “unjust,” “appalling” and ultimately “un-American.”
O’Leary, known for his role on “Shark Tank,” lambasted the decision, arguing that it sets a dangerous precedent for the entire real estate industry.
O’Leary had previously been critical of the months-long fraud case in the media, saying on CNN recently that, “I don’t think this thing will ever survive appeal regardless of what the fine is. This doesn’t even make sense.”
“That fact that he was found guilty, you might as well find guilty every real estate developer on Earth,” O’Leary said in an exclusive interview with The Post.
In light of this absurd civil verdict, posting this video again of Kevin O’Leary.
He explains, to CNN of all platforms:
NO ONE lost money!
Trump negotiated like EVERY real estate developer.
Total witch hunt.pic.twitter.com/O2RPUxqErQ
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) February 18, 2024
The ruling also barred the former president and his sons from running their company for three years.
The ruling comes on the heels of a massive defamation ruling against the former president.
The former president, a billionaire, writes The Daily Mail, will be facing the cash crunch of a lifetime. “Trump has up to 30 days to come up with the money, which with interest could top more than $400 million, or secure a bond of around $35 million.
The staggering decision follows an explosive three-month court case where Trump took the stand and his children, including Ivanka, testified.
Trump now owns more than $454 million for judgments in New York after a jury ordered him to pay up for defaming his rape accuser E. Jean Carroll.
His net worth is believed to be around $2.6 billion, according to a Forbes estimate in September 2023, and most of his assets are tied up in his sprawling real estate and golf empire.”
The future of Trump’s world famous companies hinge on the women of the family. Newsweek explained, that “Donald Trump’s real estate empire could be saved by his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, after the former president was barred from conducting business in the state of New York for three years.
Trump’s businesses could be saved by his other family members, however, such as wife Melania Trump or eldest daughter Ivanka, who also holds an executive title at The Trump Organization. Legal experts previously assessed that the former president would be able to hold on to his properties even if barred from conducting business by transferring his company to his family members not included in James’ case.
“Engoron’s order prevents Trump and his sons from serving as officers or directors in New York, but they can still be shareholders,” Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Newsweek on Friday. “That means they can own the companies, but they can’t run them.”
Trump attorney Christopher Kise told Newsweek in an email on Friday that Engoron’s ruling ‘ignored the law, ignored the facts, and simply signed off on the Attorney General’s manifestly unjust political crusade against the front-running candidate for President of the United States.'”
The former president and his attorneys have vowed to appeal the ruling.
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