New York State Attorney General Letitia James declared on Tuesday her readiness to confiscate Donald Trump’s assets, including his skyscrapers, should he fail to muster the funds to settle a £259 million fine resulting from his fraud trial.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James informed ABC News.
A New York judge recently mandated Trump, the erstwhile Republican president and lead contender for his party’s White House candidacy, to remit the fine following a determination that he perpetrated recurrent and persistent fraud, inflating his net worth by up to £2.7 billion annually to secure more favourable loan conditions.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and is appealing the fine, alleging bias on the part of James, an elected Democrat.
Trump’s appeal against the verdict might pivot on his assertion that there were no tangible victims from the actions in question.
Nevertheless, James affirmed to ABC her conviction in the robustness of her case, emphasising that “financial frauds are not victimless crimes.”
“He engaged in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight oversight; the variations are wildly exaggerated, and the extent of the fraud was staggering,” James asserted.