A New York judge on Friday fined former United States President Donald Trump $355 million, or over Rs 2,900 crore, for fraudulently overstating his wealth and thereby duping investors, the Associated Press reported.
Justice Arthur Engoron also banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any corporation in New York for three years. However, he set aside his own previous ruling from September that ordered the dissolution of the former president’s businesses in New York.
The judge said dissolving the companies was no longer required as he was naming an independent monitoring and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses, Reuters reported.
Engoron said that Trump and other defendants were “incapable of admitting the error of their ways”.
He wrote in the verdict: "Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. Instead, they adopt a 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' posture that the evidence belies."
Alina Habba, Trump's lawyer, described the ruling as the culmination of a politically-motivated witch hunt and said that the Republican leader would file an appeal.
The lawsuit alleged that Trump and his family business inflated his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion (over Rs 29,000 crore) per year over a decade to dupe bankers into giving him better loans.
During the trial, which went on for close to three months, Trump maintained that he was innocent. He called the judge “extremely hostile” and Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit, a “political hack.”
The latest ruling is one of the many legal battles in which Trump has been involved over the last several months as he seeks to run as a Republican candidate for this year's presidential election.
In January, a jury ordered him to pay an additional $83.3 million (Rs 692.40 crore) to author and columnist E Jean Carroll for his continued social media attacks on her in connection with her allegations that he sexually assaulted her.
In December, Trump was disqualified from the Maine state ballot for the presidential primary election. The state’s top election official cited his role in inciting an insurrection after the 2020 presidential election.
After Democrat leader Joe Biden was elected as the next president of the United States in the 2020 presidential polls, Trump had alleged that the election was not fair and that there was a conspiracy to stop him from winning a second term.
Trump’s assertion led to his supporters storming the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, to prevent Biden from being certified as the next president by the two houses of the legislature.
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