In a stunning, pre-trial win in New York attorney general’s all-out war on the Trump Organization, a Manhattan judge has found that Donald Trump committed fraud for years by inflating his worth to banks and insurers by as much as $3.6 billion a year.
A strongly-worded ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron rejected outright Trump’s request for a range of pre-trial victories, calling his arguments “rehashed” and “erroneous.”
Instead, the judge gave a major victory to Attorney General Letitia James, immediately revoking Trump’s license to do business in New York.
“It’s the corporate death penalty,” said Diana Florence, a veteran financial crimes prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, now in private practice.
“This ruling essentially dissolves his company,” she said, though she predicted that years of appeals may pass before anything actually happens.