Trump fined $355 million, banned from NY business in fraud trial

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $355 million over fraud allegations and banned him from running companies in the state for three years Friday in a major blow to his business empire and financial standing.

Trump -- almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee this November -- was found liable for unlawfully inflating his wealth and manipulating the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.

Trump defense lawyer Alina Habba called the ruling a “manifest injustice” and vowed to appeal. As the case was civil, not criminal, there was no threat of imprisonment.

But Trump said ahead of the ruling that a ban on conducting business in New York state would be akin to a “corporate death penalty.”

Trump, facing 91 criminal counts in other cases, has seized on his legal woes to fire up supporters and denounce his likely opponent President Joe Biden, claiming that court cases are “just a way of hurting me in the election.”

However, Judge Arthur Engoron said the financially shattering penalties are justified by Trump’s behavior.

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron said of Trump and his two sons, who were also defendants, in his scathing ruling