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A prominent real estate investor is pulling out of New York following the verdict banning former President Donald Trump from conducting business in the state.
Grant Cardone, the CEO of Cardone Capital, announced in a post on X that he is instructing his team to immediately cease all investment into all New York City real estate, declaring that “recent political decisions” will lead to price deterioration.
“Immediately discontinue ALL underwriting on New York City real estate. The risks outweigh the opportunities at this time,” Cardone wrote. “Recent political decisions will continue to deteriorate price and benefit states that don’t have these challenges.”
“Focus on Texas and Florida,” he added.
Cardone’s orders came after a New York judge fined Trump $355 million and banned the former president from conducting business in New York for three years following a civil fraud trial, in one of the harshest corporate penalties ever doled out in the state. The total owed to the state by Trump and the Trump Organization jumps to $453.5 million when pre-judgement interest is included.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and his company repeatedly violated fraud law by misrepresenting the former president’s net worth and the value of some of his properties to lenders, allowing his company to obtain loans at more favorable rates, as alleged by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge also found that Trump was guilty of falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements and insurance fraud, helping his company bring in $370 million in what James called “ill-gotten gains.”
During an interview with Fox and Friends, Cardone claimed the political decisions of New York’s leaders have turned New York into a too-risky place to do business and has made other states more attractive for investment.
“We invest for 14,000 investors at Cardone Capital that depend on cash flow. And if I can’t predict the cash flow because of some ruling, or because of the migrants, or because I can’t evict people, New York City just keeps doing every single thing they can to sell real estate in Florida, not sell real estate in New York,” Cardone told host Steve Doocy.
Cardone isn’t the only prominent businessman warning against investing in New York. During a segment on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” Kevin O’Leary of O’Leary Ventures said he refuses to conduct business in the state.
“New York was already a loser state, like California is a loser state. There are many loser states because of policy, high taxes on competitive regulation,” he said. “I would never invest in New York now. And I’m not the only person saying that.”
Cardone similarly warned that his business would not be the only one to cease operations in New York following the ruling.
“We were going to put $1 billion in New York City this year. We were going to put $1 billion in Chicago and maybe another billion in Los Angeles. And we won’t touch any of them now,” he said. “Texas, Florida, Arizona: go hard, go big and go long.”
