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Trump ordered to pay $2 million to charities
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IANS | 08 Nov, 2019
A New York judge has ordered President Donald Trump to pay $2 million
for persistently violating state charities laws as part of a settlement
in a civil lawsuit.
The payment is the settlement - and thus the
final resolution - in a case filed by the New York Attorney General's
Office after the Trump Foundation, during Trump's 2016 presidential
campaign, organised a fundraiser for military veterans and collected
almost $3 million that was subsequently disbursed on the eve of the Iowa
caucuses at the direction of then campaign manager Corey Lewandowski,
Efe news reported on Thursday.
Judge Saliann Scarpulla ruled that
the $2 million settlement must be personally paid by Trump for
breaching his fiduciary duty to properly oversee the activities of the
Trump Foundation.
"I direct Mr. Trump to pay the $2,000,000,
which would have gone to the Foundation if it were still in existence,
on a pro rata basis to the Approved Recipients," Scarpulla wrote in her
ruling.
The Foundation previously agreed to cease its operations and must pay the settlement to a group of nonprofit organizations.
On
November 23, 2018, Scarpulla had refused to throw out the case launched
the previous June against Trump, his children Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric
and the foundation bearing his name after defence attorneys argued that a
sitting president could not be sued in state court.
New York
State Attorney General Letitia James confirmed in a statement an
agreement according to which Trump would be fined for damages and
improperly using the charitable donations for personal, political and
business purposes, including legal settlements, campaign contributions
and - in a move that, when it became public, was widely mocked - even to
purchase a portrait of himself to hang at one of his hotels.
James
wrote that Trump will remain subject to continuous supervision by her
office and his childen had to submit to measures to ensure that this
type of illegal activity never recurs.
She also wrote that the
court decision, along with other agreements that her office is
negotiating, were a significant victory in protecting charitable assets
and holding accountable anyone who abuses charitable organisations for
their personal benefit.
Trump's attorneys argued that the lawsuit
was politically motivated and all donations were used for charitable
purposes according to law. Regarding the Trump portrait, the defence
team claimed that the real estate mogul bid $10,000 of Foundation money
on a portrait of himself at a 2014 charity auction merely to kick off
the bidding, but when no one else would bid on the work the Foundation
found itself forced to "buy" the painting.
Meanwhile, Trump has consistently attacked the lawsuit, blaming it on "sleazy New York Democrats."
The
$1.78 million in assets currently in the possession of the Trump
Foundation, along with the $2 million that Trump will have to personally
pay will be disbursed in equal measure to eight charitable
organisations: Army Emergency Relief, Children's Aid Society,
Citymeals-on-Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha's Table, the United Negro
College Fund, the United Way of National Capital Area and the US
Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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