AP: Dissolving Trump's Business Empire Would Break From 70 Years of NY Civil Cases Under Anti-Fraud Law

Within days, Donald Trump could potentially have his sprawling real estate business empire ordered "dissolved" for repeated misrepresentations on financial statements to lenders, adding him to a short list of scam marketers, con artists and others who have been hit with the ultimate punishment for violating New York's powerful anti-fraud law.

An Associated Press analysis of nearly 70 years of civil cases under the law showed that such a penalty has only been imposed a dozen previous times, and Trump's case stands apart in a significant way: It's the only big business found that was threatened with a shutdown without a showing of obvious victims and major losses.

[...] And though [Deutsche Bank] offered Trump lower interest rates because he had agreed to personally guarantee the loans with his own money, it's not clear how much better the rates were because of the inflated figures. The bank never complained, and it's unclear how much it lost, if anything. Bank officials called to testify couldn't say for sure if Trump's personal statement of worth had any impact on the rates.

[...] Notably, New York's anti-fraud statute, known as Executive Law 63(12), is clear that a finding of fraud does not require intent to deceive or that anyone actually gets duped or loses money. The attorney general must only show "repeated fraudulent or illegal acts."

But the AP analysis, based on a search of reported 63(12) cases in legal databases LexisNexis and Westlaw, found that victims and losses were factors when it came to deciding whether to take over a business.

A breast cancer nonprofit was shut down a dozen years ago, for instance, for using nearly all its $9 million in donations to pay for director salaries, perks and other expenses, instead of funding free mammograms, research and help for survivors.

A private equity firm faking big investment success was closed down after stealing millions of dollars from thousands of investors.

A mental health facility was shuttered for looting $4 million from public funds while neglecting patients.

[...] "Those who want to see Donald Trump suffer by any means necessary," [University of Michigan law professor William Thomas] said, "risk ignoring the very commitment to a rule of law that they accuse him of flouting."