Hình phạt xét xử gian lận Trump sẽ vượt quá 450 triệu USD

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A New York judge on Friday handed Donald J. Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of nearly $355 million plus interest that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash.

The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron caps a chaotic, yearslong case in which New York’s attorney general put Mr. Trump’s fantastical claims of wealth on trial. With no jury, the power was in Justice Engoron’s hands alone, and he came down hard: The judge delivered a sweeping array of punishments that threatens the former president’s business empire as he simultaneously contends with four criminal prosecutions and seeks to regain the White House.

Mr. Trump will appeal the financial penalty but will have to either come up with the money or secure a bond within 30 days. The ruling will not render him bankrupt, because most of his wealth is in real estate, which altogether is worth far more than the penalty.

The judge largely tolerated Mr. Trump’s behavior (hành vi), but early on, he barred the former president from attacking his staff members, most prominently his law clerk, who sat near the judge throughout the trial so they could confer. Mr. Trump twice violated that order, prompting $15,000 in fines from the judge.

Courtroom theatrics notwithstanding, the evidence presented was often tedious, consisting of years-old emails and spreadsheets. Through that documentary evidence (chứng cứ), Ms. James’s lawyers showed that Mr. Trump’s company had ignored appraisals and manipulated (thao túng) numbers to inflate the value of properties such as golf clubs and office buildings, sometimes to absurd heights.

source: nytimes,