The countdown has officially begun for Donald Trump.
Judge Arthur Engoron, overseeing the former president’s civil fraud trial, finalized his judgment in the case Friday evening, per court records — meaning Trump now has 30 days to fork over the $454 million in fines or secure a bond for the total amount, the Associated Press reported.
The amount includes a $354 million penalty plus nearly $100 million in pre-judgment interest.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Letitia James confirmed to the AP that Trump will begin accruing interest of $111,984 per day.
Per the AP, this interest amount considers both the penalty and the pre-judgment interest — not just the penalty — meaning Trump will owe more interest than the $87,502 per day previously thought.
On Thursday, Engoron rejected Trump’s lawyers’ attempts to delay the start of the penalty
The finalized ruling also means that Trump has 30 days to appeal the verdict, per New York law.
On February 16, the legal battle between James and Trump in Engoron’s Manhattan courtroom came to an end after the New York City judge spelled out the penalties that Trump, two of his sons, and his former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg would pay for years 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,” Engoron, who previously doled out a pre-trial ruling in September that found Trump committed fraud for years, said in his February verdict.
Engoron continued: “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.”
Trump and his lawyers, who spent months defending the value of the former president’s businesses, called the verdict a “gross miscarriage of justice.”
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said he is preparing to appeal, per a statement to Newsweek.
“The case raises serious legal and constitutional questions regarding ‘fraud’ claims/findings without any actual fraud,” Kise told the publication.
Representatives for James and Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
