Donald Trump has been ordered to pay $354.9 Million in a civil fraud case in New York. He has also been barred from being an officer or director of a company doing business in New York for three years, and his assets will be overseen by an independent "compliance director".
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/16/trump-ordered-to-pay-354-9m-by-new-york-court-in-civil-fraud-case#:~:text=Donald%20Trump%20must%20pay%20%24354.9,imperils%20his%20real%20estate%20empire.
He was accused by the New York State Attorney General of inflating the stated value of his real estate holdings and of committing fraud in order to obtain loans from banks.
It is important to emphasize that no banks approached the New York State Attorney General who brought this matter before the courts and complained that they had been defrauded.
In fact, the testimony of bankers during the proceeding showed that they had no problem with the valuations presented by Trump to secure loans, and they were more than capable of assessing and even reassessing the valuations of his properties.
This case is outrageous and sets a terrifying precedent.
The state moved ahead with a legal proceeding against a business under consumer protection laws where there was no actual complaint against that business from anyone. There is a legitimate role for the state in protecting consumers against predatory businesses that take advantage of a lack of sophistication and knowledge on the part of the consumer. That was not this case where multinational banking conglomerates were more than capable of understanding their business dealings with Donald Trump.
The allegedly aggrieved parties here not only did not complain, but they actually did the complete opposite and went under oath and stated that there was no problem with their business dealings with Donald Trump at all.
They effectively swore under oath that they were not victims!
These supposed "victims" would not have launched any legal process to recover any funds that they thought they had lost to Donald Trump owing to fraud as they did not think they had been defrauded. There was no criminal trial because no one complained that Trump committed fraud. No victims; no fraud.
See here...
https://www.reuters.com/legal/trumps-civil-fraud-verdict-appeal-may-hinge-no-victims-defense-2024-02-16/
This judgment will be appealed, and this may be the crux of the issue...
"'I think the judges are going to have to look carefully at what the powers of the attorney general are here," Germain said. "Are they so broad that any lie can put you out of business, even if nobody believed it?'"
Or, "Can the state find fraud where there are no victims, and where all possible victims assert that they are not victims at all?"
The state should not look behind private business deals to find "fraud" where the participants, who were better able than the state to decide the merits of their own business deals and their actual motivations, did not think there was a problem. If this is allowable, than the state will have adopted to itself the ability to review any business deal at any time to assess what it, and not the participants, deem to be the merits of the arrangement.
That approach may pass muster in countries that are autocracies, where the real point of such state oversight is to coerce the participants in such business dealings into providing kick-backs to enrich the autocrats and others, or to adjust their personal political beliefs and behaviour. But that is not the American way. This was massive state overreach that has no precedent in New York State. That this has actually happened should cause anyone who believes in basic economic freedom - the freedom to enter into contracts - to pause and reflect.
This entire charade will be thrown out on appeal, much to the chagrin of Trump haters everywhere.
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