On February 16, 2024 Donald J. Trump was found guilty in a New York civil court and sentenced to pay the city 350 Million dollars in fines and barred him from running a business in New York for three years.

It goes without saying that if a person commits a crime that they should be held accountable. However, whether they are aware of it or not, New York is sending a very strong signal to the business community, they are not interested in conducting business. This verdict has far reaching consequences that go well beyond Donald J. Trump, and will echo for years to come. The message is loud and clear. “Stay away from New York.”

Let’s look at this unusual case as it progressed and try to learn a few things along the way.

A Conflict Of Approach

Most detectives investigating a crime will tell you that when you approach a crime scene, you need to let the evidence tell the story. The case needs to be built by the evidence, and therefore, the reality of what happened. However, this does not appear to be the case of what happened in New York.

Back in 2018 Latitia James ran for the office of District Attorney vowing to take down Trump. She was elected to the office and went to work doing just that. This action projected a clear case by drawing the conclusion first, and then building the case around that fore drawn conclusion.

The case that Latitia James chose to pursue was an extremely odd case. One that involved loans that Donal Trump secured from banks, while backing those loans with existing properties. This is a common practice done every day in Real Estate. Not to say that crimes of this sort aren’t committed everyday, but rather to say that this is a common agreement established between real estate developers and banks.

Real Estate is a hard thing to value. Sometimes the value is up, and sometimes the value is down. It can be quite difficult to establish the true value of any given property. Therefore a complex system is used to establish the value. This system uses the value of similar and nearby properties. It uses historic tax records of the property in question, as well as those neighboring properties. In addition, the historic sale prices of the property are used to help establish the current value.

Before a loan is established, the bank, the property owner, as well as a third party appraiser will all evaluate the property independently and determine the value of the property. Once this process happens, they all come together and sit down at a table and bat the numbers around. The bank is going to try to negotiate the value down, while the owner is going to cast the property in the best light. Meanwhile, the appraiser is there to ensure the numbers all fall within a reasonable range.

There are plenty of people who have this false belief that the value of things is solid, defined and fixed. But the reality is, prices for commodities like this are actually defined by two people sitting around a conference table, and negotiating a price. As with most things, the reality of a system is much more complex than it appears from the outside.

Experience

The next odd thing that happened was this case was appointed to Judge Engoron, a former taxi driver who ran unopposed for the position of Judge in 2015. Engoron has little to no experience proceeding over real estate cases, but somehow was still appointed. There were other Judges in New York to choose from who were more qualified, but somehow the case fell to him.

Maybe there is nothing to this other than the fact that he was simply the next available judge in the queue, or perhaps it was his affiliation with the Democratic party that won him the case.

Regardless of the facts, the problem is that his unqualified appointment reinforced the message that real justice was not being processed

No Jury

On October 3, 2023 Judge Engoron made a ruling that the case would not be heard by a Jury. The excuse was that Trump’s attorney missed a deadline, and therefore voided the opportunity to a trial by Jury. But the right to a trial by jury is not a technicality, it is a right established as the Sixth Amendment within the Bill Of Rights of the United States Constitution. This is yet another reason to question the legal process that happened here in this case.

The Value of Mar-a-Lago

At the core of the case was a question of the value of a property in Florida known as Mar-a-Lago. Built in the 1920s at a cost of seven million. When adjusting for inflation, the construction costs would be 108 million in 2024 dollars. This 108 million value does not account for the expansion of the property. It does not account for the increase of the value of property in Palm Beach Florida. It doesn’t account for the historic value of the property. Generally the value of a property increases when a president lives or has lived there. And hey, let’s face it, having the FBI conduct the first raid on a former president’s property is absolutely a historic event that is sure to increase its value.

But the world was shocked that Judge Engoron determined that the value of the property was only worth eighteen million dollars. A shockingly low dollar amount, while Florida based real Estate experts have stated that if Mar-a-Lago was listed today, it could easily fetch three hundred million.

The Victim

Another unprecedented factor of this case was the fact that in most cases, there has to be a victim. But it was not made clear who the victim actually was. Sometimes it was presented that the bank was the victim. However, they did not bring this case against Trump. The bank actually testified that they were more than happy with the deal, and in fact that they would be more than happy to conduct business with the Trump Enterprise again in the future. So it appears clear that they were not the victim.

At other times it was said that the people of New York were the victims. That this was not a case where the bank was the victim, but rather that the bank and the Trump Enterprise colluded to defraud the people of New York.

But this doesn’t appear to be what is happening either. If it were, this would not have been a case against Trump, but rather this would have been a case against both the Trump Enterprise and banks as co-defendants. Clearly that was not the situation.

The Ruling And The Message

In the end, Judge Engoron ruled that The Trump Enterprise was guilty and Trump was ordered to pay an insanely high amount of 350 million in fees and banned Donald Trump and oddly enough, his sons from conducting business in New York for three years.

Latitia James, and Judge Engoron were able to get their ruling and were able to get one over on Trump. But at what cost?

This sends a dangerous message to the people. It tells us that this was not a case about justice, but rather an attack on any person they don’t like. To double down on this craziness, the Governor of New York Kathy Hochul made the following statement.

“...New Yorkers who have businesses have nothing to worry about because they are different from Donald Trump and his behavior.”

They may have been trying to ease people’s minds by saying that Trump is an unusual case, but the message that was received was quite a bit different. The message that was received was that in the state of New York, justice will not be applied the same to all people.

They made it quite clear. If the political elite of New York don’t like you, they will go after you, your business, and your livelihood. And they have no trouble, and no guilt about bending and manipulating the law to do so. This ruling exposed the real policies of the New York political elite. If you don’t play by their arbitrary rules, they will crush you. Not only has this sent a message to the people that they are willing to just take your hard earned money. This has hardened people against this political ideology, and made Donald Trump even more popular.

Many businesses have been left shaking in their boots. The exodus has begun and numerous businesses are fleeing New York, and the ones left now have less people to sell to. Business is like a spider web and when you cut one thread, you impact all other businesses as well. It’s sad that when businesses leave a place like New York, the effects of that take decades to rebuild. But it’s fine, if New York doesn’t want to participate in the next big economic boom, that simply means more opportunity for the rest of us.

Appeals

What is most interesting about this ruling was this; In a rush to judgment, Latitia James, and Judge Engoron skipped over the due process, and bypassed all the important details. Sure they got their judgment, but they left the door wide open. This case was full of holes and it is unlikely that he would have been ruled guilty on this in other parts of America. What this means is that it is almost certain that the Trump legal team will win in the appeals court.

Ultimately Latitia James, and Judge Engoron have done irreparable damage to business in the state of New York. They have caused damage to hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of New Yorkers... and it’s all for not.