Trump Fraud Ruling Threatens to Handcuff Family Business Operations – WSJ

The $355 million New York fraud ruling against Donald Trump stands to put a serious dent in his bank account, but it is the nonmonetary punishments that could be particularly painful for his company.

Justice Arthur Engoron in his decision Friday banned the former president from serving as an executive of the Trump Organization or any other New York company for three years, and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. for two. Trump and his business are also barred for three years from applying for loans from financial institutions registered with or chartered in New York state.

Collectively, the restrictions will force Trump s real-estate conglomerate to reimagine how it does business inside and out of New York, all under the heavy oversight of a court appointed monitor. The judge ordered the installation of an independent compliance director at the Trump Organization.

via www.wsj.com

As readers of the RC will know, I’m not a huge Trump fan. I’m not a populist, nor do I go in big for any kind of demagoguery. These days, I lean toward good AI government. However, that will probably have to wait until angels are available for the programming. Be that as it may, I find the verdict in the Trump fraud case especially heinous, as they say on Law and Order. As we all know, this is a fraud case without any damages, the banks having been paid back their loans with interest, made possible only because of NY’s peculiar statute. It amounts to imposing a crazy harsh penalty for what was essentially a no harm, no foul sort of transgression. Then there is the fairly obvious hostility of the judge toward the defendant, and Ms. James, the NY AG, displayed a conspicuous animus against Trump. Perhaps Trump will get the verdict overturned by SCOTUS, which could happen, but is a long shot. I was listening to a British discussion of the anti-Trump cases recently, and the well-spoken interviewee, whose name I forget, mentioned, as if it was a point on which everyone agreed, that the American justice system was, of course, highly political. I didn’t use to think this, but how can one deny it now?