The New York attorney general's office has made its recommendation for penalties Donald Trump and Trump Organization executives should pay for what it called "myriad deceptive schemes" to inflate his financial worth. A state brief filed Friday calls for Trump to pay a nearly $370 million penalty and to be permanently barred from conducting any real estate business in New York or running any company in the state. Attorney General Letitia James' office said a five-year real estate industry ban should be imposed on his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Hill reports.
The brief said the trial showed that Trump made that much through his fraudulent conduct, per the New York Times. When she sued him in late 2022, James had estimated Trump's gains at $250 million from inflating his net worth in an effort to receive favorable treatment from insurers and banks. Trump's lawyers have argued that there should be no financial penalty because "the attorney general has woefully failed to prove her case." They wrote that "errors or misstatements happen all the time in accounting" that do not constitute fraud.
The brief was the final one to be filed in the fraud case. Closing arguments are scheduled next week before Judge Arthur Engoron, whom Trump attacked as biased while trying to get the case thrown out. Trump's lawyers also have said the political bias of James, a Democrat, is behind the trial of the Republican former president. Engoron has already found that Trump committed fraud. The trial concerned whether the former president broke other New York laws—involving such crimes as conspiracy, insurance fraud, or falsifying business records—as well as potential penalties. (More Trump New York fraud trial stories.)
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