New York Attorney General Letitia James has urged an appeals court to maintain a ruling that ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $454 million for providing false information to lenders. James argued that there is “overwhelming evidence” of Trump’s dishonesty.

In a brief filed on Wednesday night, James responded to Trump’s appeal concerning the hefty judgment he and some Trump-related entities are facing after Judge Arthur Engoron found that he had inflated the worth of his assets over several years to secure better loan and insurance rates. Interest on this judgment is continuing to accrue, along with approximately $10 million in penalties imposed on former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg and Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr.

In defending her victory in court, James highlighted the various methods by which Engoron determined that Trump had fraudulently inflated his net worth in financial documents. This included exaggerating the size of his penthouse, flouting apartment rental regulations, and ignoring property restrictions at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

James specifically countered two main arguments from Trump’s appeal—namely that the loan operations had no victims and that the issue is not significant.

Disagreement on Victim Status

In his July appeal, Trump claimed he did not breach New York’s fraud laws because there were no victims involved, asserting that the Trump Organization fully repaid Deutsche Bank hundreds of millions of dollars after providing the bank with financial statements that included the inflated asset values identified by Engoron as fraudulent.

His legal team argued that the financial representations “involved no victims, no complaints, no evidence of causation, no injuries, no losses to any business or consumer, and no impact on any public interest.”

James responded by emphasizing that the existence of past harm is not the sole consideration, noting that one of the law’s intentions is to prevent fraud before it inflicts damage.

“A core focus of (the statute) has thus always been protecting both the integrity of the marketplace and honest market participants from the risks of misconduct—even if those risks have not yet materialized,” said attorneys from her office.

James further stated that Trump caused harm to lenders because his fraudulent actions led to better loan terms for his business, suggesting that repaying Deutsche Bank did not equate to the bank being adequately compensated for the risks it undertook.

James’ office filed the response just hours before the Manhattan-based appeals court set the date for arguing Trump’s appeal for September 26.

Significant Implications

If Trump loses this appeal, he will be required to pay the substantial judgment amount in cash or risk having his assets seized by James.

The Republican presidential candidate has previously indicated that this could be detrimental: In March, his lawyers claimed that securing a bond exceeding $450 million to prevent James from seizing his assets during the appeal was a “practical impossibility” unless he conducted a desperate real estate sale that would lead to considerable, unrecoverable losses. The appeals court later lowered the bond requirement to $175 million for Trump and his co-defendants.