The legal files are piling up for Donald Trump.
The former president of the United States and his two adult sons could have to pay $370 million in fines and be deprived of part of their real estate empire if a New York judge sentences them this Friday in civil court for financial fraud .
The candidate for a return to the White House during the November election, favorite in the Republican primary, and his sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump appeared in a lengthy civil trial from October to January, accused of having greatly inflated the value of the assets of their family empire Trump Organization.
A written decision without a hearing could be rendered on Friday by Judge Arthur Engoron, a source close to the case confirmed to AFP.
“Conclusive evidence”
It was the Attorney General of the State of New York Letitia James, elected Democrat, who filed a civil complaint in the fall of 2022 for financial fraud.
She is demanding $370 million in compensation from them.
The Manhattan civil court verdict could also strip the Trumps of control of their businesses and real estate assets in New York.
Trump father and son are accused of having caused a colossal increase in the value of skyscrapers, luxury hotels and golf courses throughout the world during the 2010s, at the heart of the Trump Organization, to obtain more favorable loans from banks. and better insurance conditions.
Certain assets, such as the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, are emblematic of the success of the businessman who entered politics on his image as a successful builder.
Even before the trial, from October to January, Judge Engoron, with whom Donald Trump has execrable relations, had judged the fraud to be constituted.
The magistrate had estimated that the New York State Attorney General's Office of Letitia James presented "conclusive evidence that between 2014 and 2021, the defendants (had) overvalued the assets" of the group by "812 million (to) 2, 2 billion dollars” depending on the year.
Also read: Donald Trump denounces “electoral interference” in his civil trial for fraud in New York
As a result of "repeated fraud", the judge ordered at the end of September the liquidation of the companies managing these assets, such as the Trump Tower or the neo-Gothic style skyscraper and soon to be century-old 40 Wall Street, in the lobby of which Donald Trump gave some of his press conferences after the trial hearings.
This decision was suspended on appeal.
The 77-year-old Republican magnate and tribune has continued to rage against justice which he believes is in the hands of President Joe Biden's Democrats, denouncing “a trial worthy of a banana republic”.
His lawyers argued a case that they said was legally empty.
If the verdict is confirmed, it will not be the first time that the former head of state has been ordered to pay a heavy sum: he was already fined 83.3 million euros at the end of January for defamation against a journalist amid rape accusations in the 1990s.
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Donald Trump ordered to pay $83 million for defamation
In this financial fraud case, however, he does not risk prison, unlike other criminal trials which await him this year, such as the one set for Thursday for March 25, in which he is accused of having made payments in order to silence a porn star over an alleged extramarital affair.
The former Republican president is also indicted for his electoral pressure and his management of state secrets, accumulating a total of 91 charges.