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The New York attorney-general has urged a judge to force Donald Trump and his businesses to pay $370mn for vastly inflating the value of his real estate empire in order to secure favourable loans, an increase from the $250mn previously demanded.
The request from Letitia James comes at the end of a 44-day trial in Manhattan, which Trump often attended in person. Two of Trump’s sons and daughter Ivanka were among the witnesses who testified during the civil fraud trial.
Trump and his co-defendants in the case “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains through their unlawful conduct” James’ lawyers wrote in a closing brief filed on Friday, outlining how properties from Mar-a-Lago to Park Avenue were overvalued by millions in an attempt to elicit loans from Deutsche Bank and others.
Judge Arthur Engoron already concluded on the eve of the trial that the former president committed fraud. The trial was set to determine whether Trump and his businesses also falsified business records and engaged in other illegal financial acts.
As well as a disgorgement, James’s office has also asked the court to impose a lifetime ban on Trump working in the real estate industry in New York or serving as an officer or director of a business in the state. It is seeking similar five-year prohibitions for his sons Donald Jr and Eric.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all matters, and dismissed the cases as partisan witch-hunts meant to end his political career.
Closing arguments are set to begin on January 11.
The civil fraud case is among a pile of legal troubles Trump is facing as he campaigns for another four years in the White House. He is also charged in four separate criminal cases, including two from US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, one from the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, and another from the Manhattan district attorney. He has entered not-guilty pleas in all of those.
He is also fighting decisions in Colorado and Maine that have struck him from the presidential primary ballot in those states. Trump has urged the US Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado ruling, and has appealed against the Maine decision in a state court.
Despite the legal pressure Trump is the clear frontrunner to secure the Republican presidential nomination in a process that kicks off in the coming weeks.
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