"Within days, Donald Trump could potentially have his sprawling real estate business empire ordered ādissolvedā 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 Yorkās powerful anti-fraud law,ā theĀ APĀ reports.
āAn 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 Trumpās case stands apart in a significant way: Itās the only big business found that was threatened with a shutdown without a showing of obvious victims and major losses.ā
The obvious victims in this case were NY taxpayers in general, and the major losses were the unpaid taxes that could have been used for any number of important and worthwhile public projects.
I cannot think of those for which Trump has more contempt. A dissolution of his so-called āempireā and a surrender of those assets to us, the People of New York, would be some sweet, sweet justice, as would banning both him and his sons from conducting business here, even if only for several years.
Not to mention the fact that it would completely and utterly destroy his identity as a āsuccessful businessmanā. ļæ¼
Ultimately, the victims are kind of ancillary where fraud of this nature is concerned. Everyone involved could profit from the sale of cocaine, but that doesnāt make the sale any less illegal. Likewise, you donāt get to lie on your appraisal forms to game the system and generate free money, because that has long-term economic impacts far beyond the scope of direct victims.
I disagree. The victims only seem ancillary because theyāre the faceless public. That doesnāt decrease the wrong committed nor the importance of the justice sought, nor even the value of the remedy issued by the court.
Just because the media canāt deliver it with a satisfying āSLAMSā or āWRECKSā or whatever superlative sells headlines this week takes nothing away from the scale of such a victory, should such a judgement be reached. The only losers would be the media for lack of some salacious story to sell with clicks to baitā and thatās not the point of any of this.
And Trump, of course. Isnāt that enough?
Yeah, and thatās why I said ākind of.ā The faceless public is certainly the victim (as is always the case with anything related to Trump), but itās really hard to personify a nebulous group that will be indirectly affected in the coming years (or were affected in ways unseen over the years).
Fraud was committed, and fraud laws exist to protect the public and the markets from that kind of manipulation at their expense.
The public is t harder to personify, they - we - are just less interesting and less salacious. āThe publicā being ripped off for the trillionth time doesnāt bait clicks and sell headlines. It doesnāt keep people glued to CNN and Fox News 24/7 with outrage watching ads for whatever theyāre selling.
The media canāt sell your ākind ofā