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By Nada TawfikBBC News, New York
fake imagesDonald Trump’s latest legal loss hits him where it hurts because it targets his own identity.
For decades, he has touted himself as a genius business magnate who made it big in one of the cutest cities in the world.
That image, forever tied to the deals in New York and reinforced by relentless self-promotion, catapulted him to international fame, allowing him to reinvent himself first as a television star and then, finally, as president of the United States.
But Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in a civil fraud case — involving inflating property values and lying on financial statements to obtain better loan terms — undermines Trump’s entire narrative. Instead, he presents him as a fraud and deals a serious blow to her business empire and his wealth.
Donald Trump once remarked that the mind can overcome any obstacle. But what an obstacle this is.
The verdict significantly restricts the Trump Organization’s ability to do business in New York. He personally has been banned from holding management positions for three years and his company is also unable to obtain loans with financial institutions registered in the city during that time.
It has faced a huge financial penalty of $355 million (£282 million; €329 million), rising to more than $450 million once interest is included, which far exceeds the amount of cash it has at hand. Your business will continue to be overseen by an independent monitor, and an independent chief compliance officer will also approve important business decisions.
Perhaps the only bright spot for the former president and Republican front-runner was that the Trump empire was spared the equivalent of the corporate death penalty: the cancellation of its business licenses.
For decades, Trump seemed to bounce back and bounce back from scandals and legal challenges that could irreparably harm others, to the point that he has been called a Teflon Don, because nothing sticks.
The nickname previously belonged to mob boss John Gotti after he won a series of high-profile acquittals in the 1980s. But today’s verdict indicates that Donald Trump’s luck, like Gotti’s, may be running out.
Judge Engoron highlighted Trump and the other defendants’ lack of remorse and their history of repeated and persistent fraud. In this case, he said, the examples of fraud spanning more than a decade at the company “jump off the page and shock the conscience.”
However, the defendants were unable to admit the error of their actions, he said, writing: “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on the pathological.”
It’s no surprise that Trump sees things very differently. He says he has built a “perfect company” and rejects that he should be punished for fraud because the banks were given their money back in full. He continues to repeat claims, without evidence, that his legal challenges are just a plot by the Democratic establishment to keep him out of the White House.
According to Mary Trump, Trump’s estranged niece, the judge’s ruling amounts to the end of the Trump family legacy. “Today is an emotional day, but one thing is certain: Engoron’s decision is absolutely devastating for Donald,” she wrote on social media.
As the son of a real estate developer whose projects included middle-class apartment buildings in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, Trump always dreamed of making a name for himself among Manhattan’s skyscrapers.
A seven-year construction spree from 1976 to 1983, including the eponymous Trump Tower, solidified its reputation as a real estate giant in New York. “Not many children have been able to escape from their parents,” he told the New York Times in 1983, implying that by age 37 he had already done so.
And it’s true that the 1980s era of greed and excess was a prosperous time for a young developer with his ambition.
fake imagesTrump Tower, with its prime location on Fifth Avenue, put Donald Trump on the map. Once his reputation was established, he put his name on every project he undertook.
However, in the early 1990s, Donald Trump declared bankruptcy for several companies and almost lost everything.
It was during this time that Rich Herschlag, the chief engineer of the Manhattan borough president’s office, worked with Trump and his organization on the Riverside South project, a redevelopment of a former rail yard on the Upper West Side.
He says that for Donald Trump it meant “everything or almost everything” to be seen as a successful real estate developer and, in particular, to build an empire on his father’s legacy.
“To see [potentially] gutted and decimated, I can’t imagine it being anything less than an emotional horror,” he told the BBC.
It is still unclear how Trump will pay the nearly $500 million he is responsible for and whether that will involve selling any assets or businesses to raise cash. Forbes values his sprawling New York real estate empire at $490 million, but there are plenty of other properties across the country, including hotels, golf courses, condos and even a winery.
He will appeal the sanction, which would leave the decision on hold until a higher court reviews the case.
But if you want to avoid paying the fine or having your personal assets seized while the appeal process plays out, you still have to deposit the full amount within 30 days or obtain an expensive bond.
Selling any of his prime Manhattan properties would be an indignity to the former president and a decision he would not make lightly.
Whether or not Donald Trump is able to recover from this financial shock, the outcome is sure to significantly affect his fortune.
The failure in the city where he reached the top, although he always remained an outsider, is undoubtedly a great loss. And for more than six decades in New York real estate, there is no figure Trump has ridiculed more than that of the “loser.”
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