NY state seeks $US370m fine against Donald Trump, and lifetime ban from commercial real estate

New York attorney general Letitia James sought a larger penalty than first proposed and a statewide permanent ban for Donald Trump from the commercial real-estate industry.

Donald Trump is the overwhelming favourite to win the Republican nomination for another run at the White House. Picture: POOL / AFP

New York attorney general Letitia James has asked a Manhattan judge for a bigger penalty – $US370 million ($552m) – alongside harsh sanctions against Republican former president Donald Trump and his real-estate business.

In a court filing on Friday that followed a tumultuous civil fraud trial in New York City that began in October, James asked Judge Arthur Engoron for a larger fine than initially proposed, a statewide permanent ban for Trump from the commercial real-estate industry, and an at least five-year industry ban for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

James said in the Friday filing that Trump and his top executives “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains through their unlawful conduct.” The attorney general’s office previously wanted Trump fined $US250 million, among other sanctions.

Engoron ruled before the trial that Trump and other defendants had engaged in fraud. The purpose of the trial has been to determine punishments, along with the adjudication of additional claims by James, including conspiracy, insurance fraud and business-record falsification.

Trump has denied the allegations and called James’s case against him “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 decamped for Florida following his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The city, of course, 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 presently the overwhelming favourite to win the Republican nomination for another run at the White House, according to national polls.

On Friday, James, a Democrat, repeated 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.

“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 seeks to show that the value of much of Trump’s prized real estate was inflated between 2011 and 2021, resulting in more favourable terms on loans than otherwise would have 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 $US100 million in May 2022, a year after Trump had left the White House.

Last year, Mazars, the Trump Organisation’s longstanding accounting firm, quit, saying Trump financials from 2011 to 2020 should no longer be relied upon.

The next major step in the case is closing arguments, which are scheduled for Jan. 11.