New York | A New York judge on Friday (Saturday AEDT) handed Donald Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of $US355 million ($543 million) that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash.

The decision by Justice Arthur Engoron caps a chaotic, years-long case in which New York’s attorney general put Trump’s fantastical claims of wealth on trial. With no jury, the power was in Engoron’s hands alone, and he came down hard. The judge delivered a sweeping array of punishments that threatens the former president’s business empire as he simultaneously contends with four criminal prosecutions and seeks to regain the White House.