Appeals Court Questions Trump’s ‘Troubling’ $450 Million Fine In Civil Fraud Case

Topline

New York appeals court judges signaled Thursday they may be willing to limit the nine-figure judgment against former President Donald Trump and his business associates, questioning the New York attorney general’s office during a hearing and suggesting concerns that the litigation over whether Trump fraudulently misstated the value of his assets may have gone beyond what the state can legally do.

Key Facts

A five-judge panel heard oral arguments in the civil fraud case Thursday, after New York State Judge Arthur Engoron in February found Trump and his associates liable for fraudulently misstating the value of assets on financial documents in order to obtain more favorable business deals and reflect a higher net worth for Trump, ordering them to pay more than $464 million, including $454.2 million plus interest by Trump personally.

Trump’s lawyers argued in part that the ruling should be overturned because no one was harmed by any values being misstated—though the defendants maintain their numbers were accurate—given that Trump’s company paid all the companies it did business with in full and no one lost money.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office argued that doesn’t matter because the statute Trump was sued under doesn’t require showing evidence that anyone was harmed, but judges said the state may still have gone too far, saying there have to be some “guardrails” in place that stop the state from going after any private business.

“There has to be some limitation on what the attorney general can do,” Justice Peter Moulton told Deputy Solicitor General Judith Vale, who argued the case for the attorney general’s office, after the court previously questioned bringing a case to “upset a private business transaction” between “equally sophisticated partners” in which the supposed victim had the power to conduct its own “due diligence” and “never complained.”

The judges also questioned the nine-figure judgment against Trump and his associates, saying “the immense penalty of this case is troubling” given the businesses Trump worked with “left these transactions happy,” and asking whether the fine should have been calculated differently, which would have resulted in a lower amount.

Vale defended the state’s case, saying the massive fine was justified given the “enormously favorable” terms Trump and his associates got on business deals using the inflated valuations and the repeated nature of the fraud, also pointing out that companies did complain and stop doing business with Trump after finding out numbers were misstated.

Contra

The appeals court judges also questioned Trump attorney Dean John Sauer during arguments Thursday, pointing out that some of Sauer’s arguments conflicted with previous rulings the appeals court has issued in the case. Judges asked why, if Trump is claiming someone had to be harmed to be found liable of fraud, the statute in question doesn’t say that explicitly. Sauer was also asked about how the Trump Organization valued his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida—claiming it was a private residence despite restrictions on its deed prohibiting that—with the Trump attorney responding that its label is proper because Trump “has been using it as a private residence since 1995.”

What To Watch For

It’s unclear how long it will take the appeals court to rule on the case. If they uphold Engoron’s ruling, Trump and his associates—including sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr.—face a range of punishments on top of the millions in fines, including being temporarily barred from running New York businesses. Trump can also still appeal his case to New York’s highest court if he loses in this appeals court, though interest will keep accruing on his judgment while he does.

Big Number

$478.3 million. That’s how much Trump now owes in the civil fraud case, including interest, which accrues at a rate of 9% per year, increasing the amount Trump has to pay by $111,984 per day, $3.4 million per month and $40.9 million per year. More than $24 million has accrued since Trump was first ordered to pay $454.2 million in February. The interest keeps accumulating while the appeals process plays out, and won’t stop until the appeals process ends and Trump is ordered to pay. It would be dropped entirely if Trump were to win on appeal. The ex-president has already posted a $175 million bond in the case, after a court agreed to let him lower the amount he had to pay immediately, but he will still have to pay the full amount should he lose his appeal.

Forbes Valuation

Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $3.7 billion as of Thursday morning, ranking him the 937th richest person in the world. Most of his wealth comes from his stake in Truth Social owner Trump Media and Technology Group, followed by his real estate holdings. Forbes estimates he only has approximately $413 million in cash and liquid assets, which is what would be used to pay the full judgment in the civil fraud case if his appeal fails. It’s unclear how Trump will pay the full judgment if needed, given it exceeds his cash pile. Trump would most likely have to sell shares of his social media company—even as the ex-president has claimed he has no intention to do so.

Tangent

In addition to the civil proceedings against Trump and his associates, the fraud case also led to criminal charges against former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury based on testimony he gave in the case. He was sentenced to five months in prison, but was released on good behavior in July after serving only 100 days. Weisselberg was charged after downplaying his knowledge that Trump vastly inflated the square footage of his Trump Tower penthouse, which Forbes reported in 2017 is actually 10,996 square feet, far smaller than the more than 30,000 feet Trump claimed on financial documents. Forbes’ reporting showed Weisselberg was far more interested in the penthouse’s square footage than he claimed during the civil fraud trial and in a 2020 deposition, and he was charged after Forbes reported Weisselberg lied under oath. While Weisselberg was charged based on his comments in both the deposition and at the fraud trial, he only pleaded guilty to charges based on the 2020 deposition. Weisselberg testified he wasn’t aware of the size discrepancy before Forbes’ piece and was not present while Trump exaggerated the penthouse’s size—but was actually present during a meeting with Trump and Forbes reporters in which Trump lied about the square footage, and internal emails and emails from Forbes show Weisselberg was aware of the discrepancy before Forbes’ 2017 piece was published.

Key Background

James sued Trump, his associates and his businesses in 2022, alleging the ex-president and his business had misstated the value of assets more than 200 times in a 10-year span, including his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate and his Trump Tower penthouse. The misstated valuations were used to get loans on more favorable terms, the state argued, also claiming Trump used the figures to reflect a higher net worth for himself. Trump has strongly denied the accusations, with his lawyers arguing in court that the valuations are based on Trump’s real estate expertise and blaming any issues on its financial documents on the Trump Organization’s accountants, rather than Trump himself or his sons. The case went to trial last fall, with Engoron ruling even before it began that Trump and his associates had fraudulently misstated the value of assets. He then ruled again in February against Trump, deciding after the monthslong trial that Trump and his associates had knowingly misstated the assets’ value for personal gain. While Trump and his lawyers tried to distance himself from any wrongdoing in the case, the judge ruled there was “overwhelming evidence” suggesting Trump and his sons signed off on the false financial documents, and Trump “was aware of many of the key facts underpinning various material fraudulent misstatements” in the financial statements and “severely compromised his credibility” when testifying in the case.

Further Reading