The Court of Appeal is launching the civilian fraud of $ 500 million in Trump

A court of appeal pronounced a penalty of $ 500 million (372 million pounds sterling) that President Donald Trump was ordered to pay during a New York civil fraud trial last year.

Judge Arthur Engoron had ordered Trump to pay the costs to massively inflate the value of the Trump organization properties in order to guarantee favorable loans.

In the long decision published on Thursday, judges of the New York Supreme Court’s Appeal Division said that even if Trump was responsible for fraud, the fine of almost half a billion dollars was excessive and probably violated constitutional protection against severe sanctions.

In the event, the Engoron judge had ordered Trump to pay $ 355 million, but with interest, this reached more than $ 500 million.

“Although damage has certainly occurred, it is not the cataclysmic damage that can justify a price of almost half a billion dollars in the state,” wrote Peter Moulton.

In an article on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said that the decision was a “total victory”.

“I greatly respect the fact that the court had the courage to make this illegal and shameful decision that injured business throughout New York state,” he said. “It was a political witch hunt, in the commercial sense, which no one has ever seen before.”

The New York Prosecutor General’s Office, which brought the case against Trump, also developed the victory decision because it confirmed the responsibility of Trump’s fraud and the judges did not pronounce other sanctions which were not financial. The office plans to appeal the decision on the fine before the highest court in the state, the court of appeal.

In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said that the judges “confirmed the well -supported conclusion of the court of first instance: Donald Trump, his business and two of his children are responsible for fraud”.

“He should not be lost in history: another court has still judged that the president had violated the law and that our business has merit,” he also said.

In the event that against Trump, his two adult sons and the Trump organization, Judge Engoron also prohibited Trump from serving as a company director or contracting banks in the state for three years.

Thursday’s decision has remained in place this sanction and other non -monetary sanctions imposed by the Engoron judge.

The 323 -page decision, which included three long opinions, revealed a disagreement among the five judges of the panel.

They were mainly divided on the bottom of the initial trial brought by James, who accused Trump and his sons of “persistent and repeated fraud”.

While several judges said that it was “in its legitimate power in the context of this action”, it was believed that the case should have been rejected and two said that there should be a new more limited scope.

These two, however, joined the decision to throw the fine “for the sole purpose of guaranteeing the purpose,” wrote Moulton.

American voters had “obviously made a verdict” on Trump’s political career, also wrote Moulton Judge, and “this bench unanimously derails the effort to destroy its affairs”.

The decision occurred almost a year after the panel heard oral arguments on the appeal, during which several judges seemed skeptical about the civil fraud affair.

Trump’s son Eric Trump, who was involved in the case, celebrated the decision in an article on social networks.

“After 5 years of hell, justice has prevailed!” He wrote.

The decision was equivalent to a “judicial version of the box kick -off,” said Will Thomas, assistant business law professor at the University of Michigan.

“By his own admission, the courts of appeal reject the real legal decision to the New York Court of Appeal, noting that his unusual decision has been made” for the sole purpose of guaranteeing the finality “, he said.

“It is difficult to draw conclusions … Except that we will have to continue to wait longer to discover the ultimate result of James V Trump.”

In September 2023, the Engoron judge judged that Trump was responsible for commercial fraud, concluding that he had distorted his wealth of hundreds of millions of dollars. Another trial took place in 2024 to determine the sanction.

In one case, the judge found that Mr. Trump’s financial statements had wrongly said that his penthouse Trump Tower was almost three times his full size.

Trump said the case brought by James, a democrat, was politically motivated.

The unusually long decision on Thursday also reflected the historic situation in the way of managing a massive fraud case involving an in -office, said Mark Zauderer, a long -standing lawyer in New York.

“Do you have a 300-page opinion if it was Joe Smith the businessman, not Donald Trump?” Mr. Zauderer asked.

Additional Kayla Epstein reports