Former U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a news story about New York Attorney General Letitia James as he speaks to the media at one of his properties at 40 Wall Street after his civil fraud trial on January 11, 2024 in New York City gave closing arguments.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Donald Trump doesn’t have enough cash to obtain an appeal bond that would prevent New York’s attorney general from seizing his real estate assets to satisfy a $454 million civil fraud judgment, his lawyers said in a filing Monday court file.
Trump’s lawyers said in the filing that it has proven “impossible” for the former president to obtain bail that would secure him the full sentence he faces while he appeals the verdict and ordered him to pay .
The filing asks a panel of five Manhattan Appeals Court judges to let Trump avoid posting bail while he challenges a judge’s ruling that he, the Trump Organization and other defendants committed business fraud.
If the panel does not approve this request, Attorney General Letitia James could initiate proceedings to seize Trump’s property on March 25.
James, who successfully sued Trump in the case, had previously said she would take that step if he did not post an appeal bond or pay the judgment.
Filings with the Appellate Division of the Manhattan Supreme Court show that Trump’s team contacted about 30 bail companies but found none willing to underwrite the bond.
Trump’s lawyer wrote that obtaining a bond of this size would require “close to $1 billion in cash reserves,” which neither the former president nor the Trump Organization has.
Under New York court rules, Trump must post bail to prevent James from collecting the fraud judgment.
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Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement: “A bond issue of this magnitude would be an abuse of the law, would contradict the principles of our republic and fundamentally undermine the rule of law in New York.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his co-defendants in February to pay a total of $464 million in damages and interest for violating a New York anti-fraud law.
Engoron ruled that Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and the company’s top executives had for years fraudulently inflated the value of real estate assets to increase his net worth and obtain better loan terms and other financial benefits.
Trump was ordered to pay the lion’s share of the judgment: $454 million. Following the verdict, interest will continue to accrue on Trump’s share of damages, amounting to nearly $112,000 per day.
Trump, who secured the Republican presidential nomination, claimed in an affidavit last year that he had “significantly more than $400 million in cash.”
Still, his lawyers’ nearly 5,000-page court filing on Monday outlined his inability to obtain bail to secure the full sentence.
The filing includes an affidavit from Gary Giulietti, president of the Northeast division of the Lockton Companies, which he describes as the largest private insurance brokerage firm in the world.
Giulietti, who was hired by Trump to help him secure bail, wrote: “Although we have searched the market, we have been unsuccessful in our efforts… for the simple reason that under the law it is virtually impossible to obtain one.” to receive an appeal for $464 million in the circumstances presented.”
Only a handful of surety companies have approval from the Treasury Department to underwrite a bond of this size, and many of those companies will only issue a single bond with a maximum amount of $100 million, Giulietti wrote.
He also said that none of these companies will accept non-liquid assets – such as real estate – as security.
“Simply put, a bond of this magnitude is rarely, if ever, seen,” Giulietti wrote. “In the unusual event that a bond of this size is issued, it will be issued to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or private companies.”
The Trump Organization is privately owned.
Giulietti wrote that it would be impossible for a private company to obtain a bond to secure the $464 million total judgment unless it had and would be able to offer approximately $1 billion in cash or cash equivalents as collateral at the same time able to meet his other business obligations.
“While I expect the Trump Organization to have a strong liquidity position, it does not have $1 billion in cash or cash equivalents,” he wrote.
Trump’s lawyers also noted in the filing that bond issuers often require collateral equal to 120% of the judgment, which is over $557 million.
These issuers will also likely require a two-year advance on a 2% annual bond premium, which would require the defendants to prepay more than $18 million, the lawyers wrote.
The defendants had previously offered to post $100 million bail to prevent James from seeking the verdict while Trump appealed Engoron’s ruling.
An appeals court judge rejected that proposal but allowed the defendants to continue doing business in New York and lifted Engoron’s three-year ban on Trump from taking out loans in New York. This order is in effect temporarily before a full appeals court hears the stay request.
Trump received a $91.6 million bond from insurance company Chubb earlier this month to secure a civil defamation judgment against him in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals that judgment. According to Monday’s filing, Chubb was among the companies Trump contacted to secure bail in the business fraud case.
Carroll had successfully sued Trump in federal court for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of raping her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.
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2024-03-18 19:37:35
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