A judge in New York has found that Donald Trump and his adult children are responsible for fraud, saying they filed false financial statements for about a decade. The decision was handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron days before the start of the civil case filed by the New York Attorney General’s office against the former president.
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The lawsuit’s allegation is that Trump, along with three of his children, his companies and executives, deceived creditors, insurers and other entities, resulting in a “substantial” financial benefit to the former president by providing incorrect information in his financial statements, including 150 million dollars (around R$748 million, at current exchange rates) in favorable interest rates obtained from banks.
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In his order, the judge rejected the politician’s testimony that the financial statements were not fraudulent due to “disclaimers.” Trump claimed the statements contained a clause to warn creditors and others that they could not be trusted.
This Tuesday (26), the judge stated that “the defendants’ reliance on these ‘useless’ disclaimers is ineffective.” This decision deals a blow to Trump and represents a complete rejection of his arguments that he did not inflate the values of his golf courses, hotels, Mar-a-Lago and Seven Springs homes in financial statements that were widely used in business. The determination represents a setback for Trump and a complete denial of his claim that he did not overstate the values of his golf courses, hotels and properties at Mar-a-Lago and Seven Springs in widely used business financial statements.