New York Judge Arthur Engoron recently imposed some $355 million in initial penalties on former President Donald Trump following a fraud case from New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who alleged a years-long pattern of Trump and allies financially benefiting from the misrepresentation of various assets’ value.
If the ruling is upheld, reports say that Trump will be under some $126 million in initial penalties just from selling off what was the Trump company’s hotel right in Washington, D.C., that operated during Trump’s stint as president. The penalties relate to profits.
The property has been a subject of concerns about potential corruption around Trump’s presidential tenure, with House Democrats sharing details on allegedly foreign government-linked payments for services at the property. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, insists that Trump should effectively return a total of some $7.8 million in those foreign government-tied payments, sending the amount to the U.S. Treasury. Democrats allege violations of the Constitutional restrictions on presidents receiving something of value from foreign sources without involvement by Congress.
Other parts of the penalties on the Trumps from Engoron include $60 million stemming from the Trump Organization selling to Bally’s Corporation what had been a golf course on a New York City property. That sale was just last year and followed earlier pressure from local authorities, who own the land and attempted to push out the Trump operation following the Capitol riot in early 2021 spurred by lies tracing to Trump of a stolen presidential election.
Interest on the underlying penalties looks set to add additional millions of dollars to the total costs, though an expected appeals process loomed. Trump has alleged that rather than overstating the value of assets, he understated key values — which could itself pose a legal problem. In the meantime, he claims a value for his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago putting it potentially among the highest-valued properties worldwide — something unsupported by the evidence.
