A Manhattan judge dealt Donald Trump a powerful blow on Friday, delivering a civil penalty totaling more than $450 million and giving him a three-year ban from the notoriously bare-knuckle world of New York real estate.
Gotlob said that while the Trump Organization likely can withstand losing hundreds of millions of dollars from the fine, the three-year financing ban “might be the worst part,” since the real-estate industry runs on borrowed money. Friday’s decision could also sweep up foreign lenders with registered affiliates in New York.Weeks before New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s decision arrived, Trump said that he would be appealing the ruling.
The judge’s decision, if upheld, seeks to temporarily ban Trump and his two grown sons from New York’s real-estate industry. But it also raises practical questions about how to untangle the Trumps from their web of business partnerships, existing lenders, tenants and investors who own bonds that financed their properties.
The penalties are designed to punish the former president for conflating his own personal wealth and the value of his properties, a practice that Attorney General James claimed resulted in more favorable loan terms than would have otherwise been available. “Certainly, most of them we should assume aren’t guilty of the trespasses on valuations that Trump has been accused of,” Miller said, adding that the court should be aware that penalizing Trump also penalizes others.