Judge orders Donald Trump to pay more than $350m in massive fraud trial ruling

Donald Trump, his adult sons and their chief associates in the Trump Organization’s sprawling real-estate empire have been ordered to pay more than $364m after a months-long case targeting fraud in the family business.

The former president and his co-defendants defrauded banks and investors as part of a decade-long scheme to secure favourable financing terms for some of his brand-building properties, according to a blockbuster lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general nearly two years ago.

A final judgment from New York Justice Arthur Engoron on Friday finds the former president, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, as well as their Trump Organization associates and Trump properties liable for tens of millions of dollars.

Mr Trump, his companies and his trust must pay the state more than $354m. His sons are each ordered to pay roughly $4m.

The former president also is barred from holding any executive office with a New York company and from getting loans from New York banks for three years. His adult sons are barred from executive offices with any New York company for two years.

Former executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney are also permanently barred from financially controlling any New York businesses, and face a three-year ban from serving as an officer or director of any New York business.

The judge’s final ruling in the case struck at the defendants’ lack of credibility on the witness stand, their failed strategy to “blame the accountants” for the false financial statements and valuations at the centre of the case, and the “evidence of deceit” used to come up with the inflated figures under scrutiny.

He pointed to a history of malfeasance within the Trump Organization, followed by the findings in the