(Bloomberg) -- The judge who hit Donald Trump and his real estate company with fines expected to exceed $450 million in New York state’s civil fraud trial against the former president made clear in his decision that he doubted testimony of key witnesses, including the billionaire and three of his children.

Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw a nearly 11-week trial, wrote in his Friday verdict that he’d weighed the “expressions, demeanor, and body language” of witnesses as they testified a few feet away, as well as “simple touchstones of self-interest and other motives, common sense, and overall veracity.”

In the end, Engoron found Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were liable for submitting “blatantly false financial data” year after year to get better terms on loans, as alleged by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge, who sometimes asked the Trumps direct questions on the stand, described them in his verdict as having a lack of remorse that “borders on pathological.”

“Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies,” Engoron wrote.

Donald Trump

The former president and lead defendant in the case was the star witness, but his meandering and combative testimony went off the rails and almost resulted in his removal from the courtroom. Trump “equivocated” at times and didn’t recall conversations about seemingly crucial asset valuations, the judge said.

Engoron wrote that when Trump was confronted on the stand with the 2002 deed in which he permanently gave up the right to use or develop his Mar-a-Lago estate “as anything other than as a social club” in exchange for a tax benefit, the former president said: “when you say, ‘intend,’ intend doesn’t mean we will do it.”

Despite being confronted with evidence that Mar-a-Lago is worth hundreds of millions of dollars less than he claims, Trump testified that he believed Mar-a-Lago is worth “between a billion and a billion five” today.

Engoron said in his verdict that such a figure “would require not only valuing it as a private residence, which the deed prohibits, but as more than the most expensive private residence listed in the country by approximately 400%.”

Trump was similarly asked on the stand if he’d been misquoted in a 2015 Forbes article in which he said his 40 Wall Street tower in Manhattan was 72 stories tall instead of the actual 63, resulting in a $50 million over-valuation.

“I don’t know,” Trump testified. “I don’t know what I said.”

Donald Trump Jr.

Trump’s eldest son testified that as trustee he certified that he was responsible for his father’s annual statements of financial condition — the documents at the center of the case — and ensuring they were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, often shortened to GAAP, in the US, the judge said.

The verdict included a play by play of every time Donald Trump Jr. testified he didn’t know about GAAP while agreeing that he verified the rules had been met. And he knew the statements were critical documents for lenders, the judge said.

“He did this every year from 2017 to 2021 despite having no knowledge of the requirements of GAAP, never having been employed in a position that required him to apply GAAP, and never having received any training,” Engoron wrote.

Engoron noted that Trump’s eldest son repeatedly said he relied on others to ensure the accuracy of the documents, but couldn’t remember who. The judge said he mistakenly testified that Mark Hawthorn became CFO of his father’s company after Allen Weisselberg left.

“However, the CFO position has remained unfilled since Allen Weisselberg departed the Trump Organization,” Engoron wrote.

Eric Trump

Engoron said in his verdict that Trump’s other adult son, Eric Trump, had “severely damaged” his credibility on the stand when he “repeatedly denied knowing that his father ever even compiled” annual statements of financial condition “that valued his assets and showed his net worth” until the lawsuit was filed.

“Upon being confronted with copious documentary evidence conclusively demonstrating otherwise, he finally conceded that, at least as early as August 20, 2013, he knew about his father’s SFCs,” the judge wrote, with Eric Trump “begrudgingly acknowledging” the fact on the stand.

“It appears that way, yes,” Eric Trump said.

The judge also criticized Eric Trump’s testimony that he had “very limited involvement” in the appraisal work on one of his favorite properties, the Seven Springs estate near New York City. That testimony “was shown to be false when he was confronted with the ample contemporaneous documentary evidence demonstrating otherwise,” the judge wrote.

A key witness and defendant, former comptroller Jeffrey McConney, provided spreadsheets showing he relied on Eric Trump when valuing Seven Springs on his father’s statement of financial condition — including for years when the property was inflated to include the value of mansions that didn’t exist, according to the verdict. That contradicted Eric Trump’s assertion that he “never had anything to do with the statement of financial condition,” the judge said.

Ivanka Trump

The former president’s eldest daughter worked on some her father’s biggest development deals before leaving the Trump Organization in 2017. Ivanka Trump was dismissed from the suit by an appeals court, but was called to testify anyway by the state. Engoron described her as a “thoughtful, articulate, and poised witness,” but said her “inconsistent recall” of events was “suspect.”

“In any event, what Ms. Trump cannot recall is memorialized in contemporaneous emails and documents; in the absence of her memory, the documents speak for themselves,” particularly in regards to the massive loans she helped secure from Deutsche Bank AG, the judge wrote.

Ivanka Trump “consistently denied” recalling the contents of documents and emails that “confirmed that she actively participated in events” even after the evidence was shown to her at trial.

“On direct examination by plaintiff, Ivanka Trump had no recollection of any of the events that gave rise to this action; no number of emails or documents with her signature served to refresh her recollection,” the judge wrote. “Notably, on cross-examination by defendants’ counsel, Ms. Trump suddenly and vividly recalled details of the projects.”

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.