8 months ago
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One month ago, Donald Trump was found liable for business fraud in New York. This case was mostly about Trump’s decades of overinflating and manipulating his net worth and the worth of his real estate empire. There was a mountain of evidence against him and it was a crushing defeat when the verdict came in. Even funnier is the fact that Trump was ordered to pay a penalty of $355 million, with significant interest accruing each day that he refuses to/cannot pay the fine. Currently, the fine is around $454 million, LMAO!!! Even more hysterical is that Trump has gone to thirty different bond companies and begged for help in paying off this fine. Every single one of those companies has turned him down. Now Trump is begging the court to “pause” the penalty.
Donald J. Trump’s lawyers disclosed on Monday that he had failed to secure a roughly half-billion dollar bond in his civil fraud case in New York, raising the prospect that the state could seek to freeze some of his bank accounts and seize some of his marquee properties. The court filing, coming one week before the bond is due, suggested that the former president might soon face a financial crisis unless an appeals court comes to his rescue.
Mr. Trump has asked the appeals court to pause the $454 million judgment that a New York judge imposed on Mr. Trump in the fraud case last month, or accept a bond of only $100 million. Otherwise, the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the case, might soon move to collect from Mr. Trump.
Still, even if the higher court rejects his appeal, Mr. Trump is not entirely out of options. He might appeal to the state’s highest court, quickly sell an asset or seek help from a wealthy supporter. Mr. Trump’s team has also left the door open to exploring a bankruptcy for corporate entities implicated in the case, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. That option, however, is politically fraught during a presidential race in which he is the presumptive Republican nominee, and for now it appears unlikely.
The former president has been unable to secure the full bond, his lawyers said in the court filing on Monday, calling it a “practical impossibility” despite “diligent efforts.” Those efforts included approaching about 30 companies that provide appeal bonds, and yet, the lawyers said, he has encountered “insurmountable difficulties.”
The company providing the bond would essentially promise to cover Mr. Trump’s judgment if he lost an appeal and failed to pay. In exchange, he would pledge cash as collateral, and he would pay the company a fee as high as $20 million. But Mr. Trump does not have enough liquidity to obtain the bond. The company would require Mr. Trump to pledge more than $550 million in cash and securities as collateral — a sum he simply does not have.
Although the former president boasts of his billions, his net worth is derived largely from the value of his real estate, which bond companies rarely accept as collateral. Mr. Trump has more than $350 million in cash, a recent New York Times analysis found, far short of what he needs.
He doesn’t have the money. He can’t even put the penalty on layaway. Between this penalty and the E. Jean Carroll verdict ($83.3 million), Trump really will have to sell some of his biggest properties. Surely that would be the way to go rather than filing for bankruptcy? Sell Trump Tower, sell the Bedminster golf club, sell Mar-a-Lago, sell all of it because you’ve got to pay all of these fines and penalties and defamation damages. Anyway, it’s amazing that THIRTY bond companies all turned him down. They know he’s broke-ass.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
