Former US President Donald Trump is unable to find a private company to guarantee the full amount of his $464 million New York civil fraud judgment against him, his lawyers have said in a court filing.
The filing today, Monday, March 18th, stated that obtaining a bond has proven to be “a practical impossibility,” adding that “diligent” efforts carried out to secure a bond have included “approaching about 30 surety companies through four separate brokers” and “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world.”
These efforts have shown that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgement “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” the filing states.
Interest included, Trump owes $456.8 million. In total, he and co-defendants, which include his company and top executives, owe $467.3 million, according to the Associated Press. To get a bond, they would need to post collateral worth $557 million, Trump’s lawyers said. Trump’s two eldest sons must also pay millions of dollars in the case.
In addition to Trump’s fraud case payment
On top of ordering Trump to pay the penalty, New York Judge Arthur Engoron banned the former President from running any businesses in the state for three years. This was after he found Trump falsely inflated assets to secure better loan deals.
A judge paused Trump’s business ban last month but did not permit his bid to provide a smaller bond amount to cover the fine. In the latest fraud filing, Trump’s lawyers included an affidavit from a president of a private insurance firm who said that “simply put, a bond of this size is rarely, if ever, seen.”
“In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” the lawyers added.
Trump’s team also said that bond companies would not accept “hard assets such as real estate as collateral” for the bond but only cash or “cash equivalents,” such as investments that can be quickly liquidated, as reported by the BBC.
According to a Forbes estimate, Trump is worth around $2.6 billion, and he testified last year that he had $400 million in liquid assets. Yet, as his company is private, his finances are not clear. According to the Financial Times, “Some of the documents published on Monday by Trump’s legal team show that Deutsche Bank, one of his top lenders, had made drastic downward adjustments to his stated net worth and liquid assets in its own credit reports.”
However, the $464 million judgement is not the former President’s only expense. He was ordered to pay $83 million in January after losing a defamation case to E. Jean Carroll, a woman he was found to have sexually abused. Trump has already posted a bond in that case.
New York’s attorney general has vowed to seize Trump’s assets if he does not pay the fraud penalty. The fine will continue accruing interest by at least $112,000 per day until he makes the payment.
A GoFundMe page was also started in February to help Trump raise the money he has been ordered to pay, with the efforts being organized by Elena Cardone, the wife of property tycoon Grant Cardone. The MAGA fan has so far raised just $1.3 million towards the former President’s expenses.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
