New York Attorney General Letitia James demanded a stiffer penalty of $370 million and harsh sanctions against former President Donald Trump and his real estate business from a Manhattan judge on Friday.
The filing came after a dramatic civil fraud trial in New York City that began in October. James requested Judge Arthur Engoron to impose a larger fine than the original proposal, a permanent statewide ban for Trump from the commercial real estate industry, and at least a five-year industry ban for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
In the Friday filing, James stated that Trump and his top executives “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains through their unlawful conduct.”
Previously, the attorney general’s office had sought a $250 million fine for Trump, among other sanctions.
Engoron had ruled before the trial that Trump and other defendants had engaged in fraud. The purpose of the trial was to determine punishments, as well as to adjudicate additional claims by James, including conspiracy, insurance fraud, and business-record falsification.
Trump has denied the allegations and dismissed James’s case against him as “baseless.” A Trump Organization spokeswoman on Friday disputed the fraud claims, calling the proposed fine and sanctions “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” and “in a continued pursuit of her own political agenda,” in emailed comments to MarketWatch.
If James’s case is proven, it would be a stunning reversal of fortune for Trump in New York, his hometown until he moved to Florida following his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The city was the hotbed for Trump’s expansion of his father’s less glamorous apartment rental business, Trump’s rise as a tabloid and then TV personality, and his political career.
Trump is currently the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination for another run at the White House, according to national polls.
On Friday, James, a Democrat, reiterated an earlier claim that Trump and other high-level executives at the Trump Organization committed “persistent” and “repeated” business fraud by inflating the former president’s personal wealth over roughly the past decade, including while Trump served as president.
Also see: Trump’s businesses got $7.8 million from 20 countries when he was president: report
“We have done nothing wrong and will continue to fight to protect our good name, our company and its valued employees,” the Trump Organization spokeswoman said.
The civil fraud case aims to demonstrate that the value of much of Trump’s prized real estate was overvalued between 2011 and 2021, resulting in more favorable loan terms than would have otherwise been available.
Property valuations under scrutiny in the case included those on 40 Wall St., the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, and the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which was sold at an estimated profit of $100 million in May 2022, a year after Trump had left the White House.