Quietly, just before the calendar turned for the new year, an already whopping debt tentatively owed by President-elect Donald Trump and co-defendants in his New York civil fraud case hit an eye-popping, interest-accumulating milestone: half a billion dollars.
Trump, two of his sons and a former executive at his company were ordered in February 2024 to pay $364 million in “ill-gotten gains” and millions more in interest dating back years. The figure, which was then $464 million, continued to accrue more than $114,000 in interest per day. The judgment is on appeal.
The total crossed $500 million on Dec. 29, and stands at more than $502 million on Thursday, a spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed.
Trump, who would personally owe about $490 million of that sum, has banked on a reprieve from New York’s mid-level Appellate Division, First Department court. During arguments in September, at least two of five justices on the appeals panel seemed skeptical of the size of the judgment. One called it “immense” and “troubling.”
But as the defendants await the panel’s decision, which is expected early this year, interest has continued to pile up. The court typically releases opinions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and the Trump case was not among the batch released today.
Jeenah Moon/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images
That means Trump will likely be sworn in as president on Monday with a debt to the state of New York larger than the combined proposed 2025 budgets for New York’s sixth and seventh largest cities, Albany and New Rochelle.
Trump has raged against the debt and the case, in which a judge concluded he and his company manipulated spreadsheets provided to accountants to juice valuations provided to banks and insurers. The result, James’ office argued and Judge Arthur Engoron concluded, was that Trump and his company received more favorable terms on loans and insurance deals that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
The growing total they may owe the state, known as disgorgement, is equal to the amount Engoron concluded they profited through the scheme, plus interest.
During a later 2023 bench trial in the case, Trump was called to the stand, where he cast blame on his employees and outside accountants, but said his books were compiled accurately. He claimed that, far from overvaluing his assets and net worth, his company “underestimated” them.
On top of the half billion owed in the New York civil case, Trump also owes more than $88 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll, after jurors in 2023 and 2024 found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
He has denied all allegations in the New York and Carroll cases, and is pursuing appeals in all three.
