Breaking down the financial pain in Trump’s civil fraud verdict

Donald Trump was handed a major blow in the civil fraud case over inflated values of Trump Organization properties, but the six-figure verdict had some breaks among the pain for the former president. 

Trump and several of his top lieutenants, including his two adult sons, were hit last week with a $364 million judgment by Justice Arthur Engoron, just shy of the $370 million penalty New York Attorney General Letitia James sought in the case. 

The judgment carries a 9 percent interest rate, meaning Trump’s total due will increase more than $87,500 per day until it’s paid, Forbes reported, with the attorney general concluding he actually owed $450 million as of the verdict. 

The sum is the largest, but not the only major financial judgment facing Trump, after writer E. Jean Carroll was awarded $83.3 million in her defamation case against the former president. Trump testified in his trial he has $400 million in cash, though people are raising money on GoFundMe to assist him on his legal fees.

That financial hit won’t be realized in full until after the appeals process plays out. Trump will likely need to put down an appeal bond, which could stretch into the tens of millions.

A bright side to the judge’s decision.

The attorney general sought a ban against Trump from the New York real estate industry. Engoron instead banned him from being an officer or director of a company in the state for three years. Donald Jr. and Eric received the same decree, for two years each.

The Trump Organization also survived Engoron’s verdict after staring down a potential “corporate death penalty” that would have forced the business to sell some of its prized assets in the state. Engoron spared the company from that penalty and reversed his earlier revocation of some of the company’s operating certificates.

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The judge isn’t letting the company continue on without some controls. 

Barbara Jones’ term as independent monitor of the company was extended for at least three years. Jones, a former federal judge, issued a report prior to Engoron’s ruling that raised more allegations of financial misreporting at the company, including paperwork issues and questions surrounding a $48 million loan made between Trump and one of his companies.

— Holden Walter-Warner