A New York judge fined Donald Trump more than $350 million on civil fraud charges for inflating the value of his properties to secure favorable loans and restricted him and his two eldest sons from serving as company officers or directors in coming years in the state.

In a legal setback that could affect the former president’s real estate empire, New York State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron on Friday issued a 92-page ruling that orders the former U.S. president to pay the penalty stemming from a case that New York Attorney General Letitia James brought against the Republican presidential front-runner. She had asked for a $370 million fine.

Trump was also spared from being forced to liquidate his real estate portfolio, potentially in not only New York but states such as Florida and Illinois. Engoron last fall had suggested he might issue such a broader order, but in his ruling said it wasn’t necessary.

The judge ended up banning Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York company for three years, and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had similar bans imposed on them for two years. Trump and his companies were also barred from applying for loans from any New York bank or financial institution for three years.

Trump has described the litigation as a "witch hunt" by James, who is a Democrat, and he continues to deny any wrongdoing. His company, the New York-based Trump Organization, immediately issued a statement criticizing Engoron’s decision and the penalties he imposed.

“Today’s ruling is a gross miscarriage of justice,” the company said. “The Trump Organization has never missed any loan payment or been in default on any loan. The lenders in each of these transactions were some of the largest banks in the world, they were represented by the most prestigious law firms in the country, and they performed extensive due diligence prior to entering into these transactions — and in the end, Deutsche Bank and others made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits all while having an incredible relationship with our organization.”

In her own statement, James said justice had been served.

“This is a tremendous victory for this state, this nation, and for everyone who believes that we all must play by the same rules — even former presidents,” she said. “For years, Donald Trump engaged in massive fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization. While he may have authored the ‘Art of the Deal,’ our case revealed that his business was based on the art of the steal. When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of honest and hardworking people.”

The penalties for all the the defendants in the case total $450 million, representing $363.8 million in disgorgement, the act of giving up something on demand or by legal compulsion, and prejudgment interest, according to James.

The civil fraud case is only one of the legal cases that Trump faces, including jury trials on four different criminal complaints. Trump’s lawyers had argued that Trump should have immunity since several of them took place when he was president. But on Friday, his legal team abandoned its effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court take up the issue, with plans to rather use it as a defense in his trials

The civil fraud case landed in the courts after James in September 2022 sued Trump — and the Trump Organization, several of his family members and company officials — alleging that they made misrepresentations in financial statements to lenders to secure favorable terms in a variety of transactions. The lawsuit cited a number of Trump's trophy properties, including Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Ave. and an office tower at 40 Wall St., both in Manhattan, and his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida.

In September last year, Engoron found that Trump had committed civil fraud by inflating the value of some of his holdings to secure favorable loans and insurance. At that time, Engoron said there would be a "dissolution" of Trump's New York companies. But it was unclear how his comment should be interpreted, particularly if it meant Trump’s real estate holdings would be liquidated.

Engoron, whose ruling against Trump last fall is under appeal, in that decision also immediately canceled the Trump Organization’s business operating certificates. The judge also said that Trump should forfeit control of his New York companies, which own his landmark properties, and that they should be turned over to a receiver.

In addition to seeking a $370 million fine, James has asked that Trump be barred from doing business in the Empire State. And in fact, Engoron has now banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.

Engoron was critical of Trump in his written decision.

“As Eric Trump testified, Donald Trump sat at the top of the pyramid of the Trump Organization until 2017,” the judge wrote. “Donald Trump professed to ‘know more about real estate than other people’ and to be ‘more expert than anybody else.’ He repeatedly falsified business records with the intent to defraud.”

And there was no acknowledgment that their actions were wrong, according to Engoron.

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” he wrote. “They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”

Also in Friday’s decision, Engoron said he was canceling his September ruling regarding ordering the dissolution of Trump’s companies and reinstating their operating certificates. Those measures weren’t warranted anymore, according to the judge, because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance officer to oversee Trump’s companies.

The Trump Organization said the case sets a dangerous precedent.

“If the Attorney General is permitted to retroactively insert herself into private commercial transactions between sophisticated parties, no business transaction entered into in the state of New York will be beyond the Attorney General’s purview” the company said.

“Every member of the New York business community, no matter the industry, should be gravely concerned with this gross overreach and brazen attempt by the Attorney General to exert limitless power where no private or public harm has been established,” the Trump Organization said. “If allowed to stand, this ruling will only further expedite the continuing exodus of companies from New York."

While that comment appears to indicate Trump plans an appeal, the Trump Organization didn’t immediately respond to an email from CoStar News asking about that issue.

Among other legal troubles Trump and his real estate companies have faced is a federal jury ruling that the former U.S. president must pay $83.3 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation in his denial that he sexually assaulted her. Carroll had previously been awarded $5 million, in May 2023, for a lawsuit she had lodged against Trump.

In December 2022 the Trump Organization was convicted of 17 criminal tax fraud charges in New York in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The company was accused of evading taxes by concealing about $1.7 million in taxable income, by providing off-the-books benefits such as cars, private school tuition and homes since 2005. The Trump Organization was ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in fines, the maximum allowed, in January last year on the charges.

Trump himself still faces jury trials on four criminal cases, with charges alleging he paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, interfered with an election in Georgia, illegally kept classified documents at his Florida estate, and plotted to subvert the 2020 election. A judge ruled Thursday the hush-money trial will begin March 25. That jurist, Justice Juan Merchan, also rejected Trump’s bid to dismiss the 34 felony counts pending against him.

CoStar News reporter Ryan Ori contributed.