New York, Oct 5 (EFE).- Judge Engoron, presiding over former Presidetn Donald Trump’s business fraud trial ordered Thursday that Trump and the other defendants must “inform in advance” if they want to apply for new operating licenses, create a new company, or transfer assets.
This is a development from Judge Arthur Engoron’s Sept. 26 ruling, in which he summarily – before trial – revoked the New York State operating licenses of Donald Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and two associates “responsible for the ongoing fraud” at the Trump Organization, and canceled their licenses.
Engoron, in his order today, gives the defendants a one-week deadline to provide an independent monitor, judge Barbara Jones, with a list of the entities controlled or owned by the defendants – affected by the cancellation of the licenses – and detail their partners.
The magistrate extended until October 26 the deadline for the defendants to indicate who will be in charge of the liquidation of the companies.
In addition, he ordered them to inform Supervisor Jones in advance of possible applications for new operating licenses “in any jurisdiction” and of the creation of any new entity intended to maintain or acquire the assets of the terminated companies.
It also requires them to inform Jones of transactions involving the entities, such as transfers of assets and debt, of their communications with third parties – such as banks, lenders, or insurance – regarding license cancellations and notices of “defaults” from other related parties.
Trump’s attorneys yesterday appealed the ruling that settled the main fraud charge before trial and imposed the cancellation of the defendants’ licenses, a ruling from which Thursday’s orders derive. Still, the appeal process could drag on for months.
The civil trial promoted by the New York Prosecutor’s Office, in which six charges related to fraud in the Trump Organization are being settled, is going through its fourth day in the absence of the former president, who attended in person from the beginning of the process until the middle of the day on Wednesday.
The prosecution on Thursday called its second witness, one of the defendants, Jeffrey McConney, an auditor of the Trump Organization, after finishing the interrogations of Donald Bender, a former Mazars accountant, in charge of the financial statements of the Trump Organization. EFE
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