Donald Trump must pay $US350m or have NY properties seized

Donald Trump will have some of his prized buildings in New York seized if he fails to pay his $US355m ($541m) fine for fraud.

Donald Trump at a Fox News town hall event in Greenville, South Carolina. Picture: Getty Images.

Donald Trump will have some of his prized buildings in New York seized if he fails to pay his $US355m ($541m) fine for fraud, even while he is appealing against it, the state’s Attorney-General has warned.

Letitia James said bailiffs would be sent in if Mr Trump did not pay into an escrow account while challenging the penalty levied on him and his companies.

Mr Trump complained that his treatment by the New York authorities was “a form of Navalny” during a televised Fox News town hall event, comparing himself to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in custody last week.

The fine was accompanied by backdated interest of 9 per cent per year that already amounts to almost $US100m. Mr Trump was found liable for defrauding banks and investors over years to secure favourable financing.

Ms James, an elected Democrat, said she was “very confident” her case would not be overturned on appeal and singled out Mr Trump’s 40 Wall Street skyscraper as one she had her eye on if he failed to pay up.

“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” Ms James told ABC News.

Mr Trump accuses Ms James of campaigning for office with a pledge of “I will get Trump”. In his Fox News town hall he called Arthur Engoron, the judge in the case, a “nut job” and said “it is all coming out of the White House … it’s election interference”.

Despite Mr Trump’s assertions that he is “totally innocent” because his loans were repaid, Ms James said that “financial frauds are not victimless crimes”.

“He engaged in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight oversight, the variations are wildly exaggerated and the extent of the fraud was staggering,” she said.

“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers and, yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day.” Ms James’s Manhattan office is nearby.

“If average New Yorkers went into a bank and submitted false documents, the government would throw the book at them, and the same should be true for former presidents.”

Mr Trump claims that Judge Engoron’s ruling will drive away business from New York City.

“Last I checked, tourism is up, Wall Street is doing just fine,” Ms James said.

Mr Trump again refused to mention Vladimir Putin in connection with Navalny’s death as he turned a Fox News question back on to himself.

“[Navalny] was a very brave guy because he went back [to Russia], he could have stayed away, and frankly, probably would have been a lot better off staying away and talking from outside of the country as opposed to having to go back in because people thought that could happen, and it did happen,” Mr Trump said.

“It’s a horrible thing, but it’s happening in our country too. We are turning into a communist country in many ways, and if you look at it, I’m the leading candidate. I’d never heard of being indicted before, I got indicted four times, I have eight or nine trials – all because of the fact that I’m in politics.”

Asked if he was concerned he could become a “political prisoner”, Mr Trump referred to the New York civil case: “It’s a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism. The guy [Engoron] is a nut job. I’ve known this for a long time and I’ve said it openly.”

The Times