The New York attorney general is seeking more than $370 million from Donald Trump and his co-defendants and to bar the former president from doing business in the state, according to a post-trial brief filed Friday in Trump’s civil fraud trial.
New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that Trump and his co-defendants’ intent to defraud while preparing the former president’s financial statements was “inescapable,” seeking the repayment of $370 million in disgorgement, or “ill-gotten gains.”
“The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” the attorney general wrote.
Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled in a summary judgment ruling finding that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for persistent and repeated fraud. He also ordered the cancellation of Trump’s business certificates in New York. Trump has appealed that decision and the court has paused dissolving the companies.
Trump’s attorneys on Friday argued that Engoron should reject the allegations against Trump, writing in their briefs that most of the transactions in the attorney general’s complaint were beyond the statute of limitations, that Trump’s statements of financial condition did not contain material misstatements, and that the attorney general did not demonstrate any real-world impact.
“There is no evidence in the record that the terms or pricing of any of the subject loans would have been different based on the purported misstatements alleged by Plaintiff,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Not a single witness from any bank (or anywhere else) testified to this at trial.”
The post-trial briefs filed Friday set the stage for closing arguments before Engoron next week. The judge could issue his ruling as soon as later this month.
Engoron has…
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