The court found Trump guilty of fraud for inflating the value of assets..

***New York - Former US President Donald Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr. have been accused of fraud related to inflating the value of real estate and financial assets of the Trump Organization for many years, decided Judge Arthur Engoron in New York on Tuesday. This decision was a setback for the former president ahead of an upcoming civil trial set to start on Monday.*

The Attorney General of New York State, Letitia James, has accused Trump and his two eldest sons of business fraud, alleging that they provided "grossly inflated" numbers to banks and insurance companies. The lawsuit claims that they lied to tax authorities, creditors, and insurers for many years, creating a scheme that systematically overstated the value of the organization's assets for their own benefit and that of their close associates.

Lawyers for Trump asked the judge to dismiss the case before the trial by issuing a so-called summary judgment in his favor.

James demands a fine of $250 million and the removal of Trump and his sons from the leadership of the Trump Organization's real estate business. She alleges that Trump and his accomplices "grossly overstated" the net worth of Trump's company assets every year between2011 and2021 to obtain and maintain loans and insurance on more favorable terms.

They allegedly fraudulently inflated the value of Trump's company assets by billions of dollars, leading to "hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful retention and profit." According to James, the overvaluation of Trump's assets amounted to between1.9 billion and3.6 billion dollars per year.

Trump, the frontrunner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, condemned the case as a "witch hunt," calling James, who is a Democrat and Black, a "racist."

In January, the Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million by a judge in New York in a criminal case involving tax and financial fraud. The 77-year-old Trump, who has been impeached twice, is also facing federal criminal charges for mishandling documents containing classified information and charges of conspiracy to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

He is also facing state charges related to alleged hush money payments in New York and pressuring state officials to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Trump was also found liable in a civil case in May for sexual assault against a magazine columnist in 1996 and for defamation against her last year.

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