The basic accusation is that Trump's company inflated the value of its assets to get loans. Judge Engoron's official decision was that Trump gave 'false financial data to accountants, resulting in fraudulent fianancial statements'.
No bank has accused Trump of fraud, and all of the loans in question have been paid back. The only entity that has accused Trump of fraud is the New York Attorney General, Letitia James.
Letitia James, the New York Attorney General responsible for the prosecution against Donald Trump, campaigned on the promise to prosecute Trump. She is a member of the Democratic party.
No trial about whether Trump was actually guilty of fraud was held. Judge Engoron made a summary judgement against Trump. Summary judgements are typically only made when there is no dispute about the facts of the case. In Judge Engoron's decision, he unilaterally decided that Trump was already guilty of fraud before the case even went to trial. There was no jury, and from the onset of the case, Judge Engoron decided that Trump was guilty.
One of the key pieces of evidence specifically cited by Judge Engoron in his summary judgement was the alleged overvaluation of Trump's Florida property, Mar-a-Lago. Engoron stated that the property was worth between 18 and 28 million dollars; multiple independent real estate experts have on record stated that the property is worth between 300 and 600 million dollars, but this was not considered in the summary judgement.
Michael Cohen, one of the key witnesses against Trump, stated under cross examination that "Trump never directed me to inflate the numbers on his personal statement", but went on to say that "Donald Trump speaks like a mob boss, and what he does is he tells you what he wants without specifically telling you."
Judge Engoron issued a gag order on Trump, preventing him from speaking about any member of the court staff. When Trump told reporters: "This judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who's very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is,", referring to Judge Engoron and the key witness against him (his former lawyer Michael Cohen), Judge Engoron ruled that Trump had violated the gag order and fined him $10,000, with the threat: "Don't do it again or it will be worse."
Judge Engoron is a registered Democrat.
The final ruling in the case was made on February 16th 2024, 8.5 months before the 2024 election, nearly five years after initial charges were filed. Even if Trump wins the 2024 election, he will not be able to pardon himself for any civil penalties.
In Judge Engoron's final ruling, he stated that the defendants (Trump) were "incapable of admitting the error of their ways, and their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological."