Donald Trump and other defendants in a sprawling civil lawsuit alleging years-long fraud in his real estate empire should be forced to pay more than $370 million and effectively barred from doing business in New York, according to the state’s attorney general.
Several lengthy final briefs filed in New York County Supreme Court on Friday outline the arguments of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, as well as Attorney General Letitia James’s long-running case and arguments against the former president and his top associates, who face a 44-day trial. blockbuster case against them.
The applications arrive a week before closing arguments in the case. Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to make a decision by the end of January.
The judge’s pretrial ruling effectively ordered the dissolution of Mr. Trump’s New York-based real estate empire; the former president called it a “corporate death sentence” against him.
That order was stayed pending appeal while the trial continued in lower Manhattan.
Ms. James’s office on Friday responded to its request, including a “lifetime injunction” banning Mr. Trump and former Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney from “participating in or serving as a director in the real estate industry in New York State.” He also added other sanctions. officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity is necessary and appropriate.”
The evidence gathered by his office, expert testimony and courtroom testimony from Mr. Trump himself, as well as his adult sons and co-defendants Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Jr., are “conclusive,” according to the filing.
The summary states that the evidence proves “numerous overt acts by Weisselberg, McConney, Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump to further the conspiracy to falsify business records and the conspiracy to publish false financial statements.”
Ms. James’s lawsuit accuses Mr. Trump and his co-defendants of defrauding banks and other financial institutions by inflating his net worth and assets based on annual statements of financial position — documents at the center of the case — to secure favorable financing terms for some of his stars. features.
Judge Engoron’s pretrial ruling found the defendants liable for fraud and left the case to determine how much they owe and whether the attorney general is successful on six other claims against them, including insurance fraud and conspiracy.
Ms. James was initially seeking to obtain $250 million in so-called “ill-gotten gains” from Mr. Trump and others as a result of favorable financing terms.
The new sanctions figure released Friday is based on testimony from a star financial expert witness who alleged that the former president’s former chief lender, Deutsche Bank, lost tens of millions of dollars in interest it should have collected if lenders relied on those terms. Financial documents that accurately show Mr. Trump’s net worth.
“The defendants reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits through their illegal conduct,” according to the filing from Ms. James’ office.
“This misconduct occurred under the supervision of current Trump Organization officials Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who continued the scheme to inflate financial documents,” the attorney general’s office said.
And Mr. Weisselberg, the company’s then-chief financial officer, and Mr. McConney, the controller, “on their watch,” admitted to “multiple acts related to tax evasion, and a jury convicted the company of the same criminal conduct.”
According to the attorney general’s office, they were allowed to remain on the payroll and were rewarded with “lucrative severance packages that restricted their ability to cooperate with law enforcement investigations rather than immediately terminate their employment.”
Ms. James’s office asked the judge to appoint an independent monitor to “closely monitor the company for at least the next five years” and “impose permanent statewide industry bans” with five-year bans against Mr. Trump, Mr. Weisselberg and Mr. McConney, Eric Trump and against Donald Trump Jr.
A filing from a lawyer for the Trump family argues that the hearing failed to show that Mr. Trump and his sons “had more than superficial knowledge of or participation in the creation, preparation or use” of the allegedly fraudulent financial statements.
“Accordingly, the court must rule in favor of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and dismiss this lawsuit against them in its entirety,” according to a filing filed by attorney Clifford Robert.
Attorneys for the defendants argued that “Ms. James’s office has woefully failed to prove its case and is not entitled to any of the relief sought in this case.”
Errors of any kind in accounting “occur all the time” and if they do not indicate fraud such as “concealment, forgery or deception” there is no basis for accounting for these errors. [statements of financial condition] is fraud and any misrepresentations are merely incidental errors,” the attorneys wrote.
Lawyers will return to Judge Engoron’s courtroom on Jan. 11 to make closing arguments in the case that Mr. Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly tried to brush aside entirely.
The case is one of several legal challenges facing Mr. Trump as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination, taking aim at the narrative of financial success that shaped his political persona in the first place.
Mr. Trump, who was not required to attend any of the hearings, sat with his lawyers throughout several days of the trial. He also used news cameras placed outside the court gates to rail against the case, his political opponents, the judge, the chief prosecutor, witnesses and court staff.
Judge Engoron issued two gag orders in the case after Mr. Trump and his lawyers targeted his chief clerk, and a state appeals court upheld the orders after the lower Manhattan courthouse was flooded with death threats.