Trump posts $175 million bond in New York civil fraud case to avoid having his assets seized as he sets his sights on appealing massive $464 million judgement

Former President Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond Monday in his civil fraud case in New York, halting collections on the more than $454 million he owes.

The posted bond also prevents the state from seizing its assets to pay off the debts he appeals his case about inflating the value of companies, according to a lawsuit.

An appeals court in New York had given the former president 10 days to make the money available after a panel of judges last month agreed to reduce the amount needed to stop the clock on enforcement .

The bond Trump is now posting with the court is essentially a placeholder, intended to guarantee payment if the judgment is upheld.

If that happens, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee will have to pay the state the entire amount, which grows with daily interest.

If Trump wins, he will not have to pay the state anything and will receive back the money he has now deposited.

Until the appeals court intervened to reduce the bail requirement, New York Attorney General Letitia James was poised to launch efforts to collect the judgment, possibly by seizing some of Trump’s major properties.

James, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state.

She had said that if Trump has not made good on the $454 million court judgment against him from his New York fraud trial by then, she will begin seizing property – hitting the prized Art Deco skyscraper of Trump, 40 Wall Street, could be in her sights.

She also appears to be keeping an eye on Trump’s Westchester Golf Club and Seven Springs estate and logging judgments in Westchester County.

The former president gushed online about the prospects of the state taking action against him. He wrote a series of fundraising pitches telling New York to “keep your dirty hands off Trump Tower.”

The court ruled after Trump’s lawyers complained that it was “a practical impossibility” to get an underwriter to sign a bond for the $454 million, plus interest, he owed.

Trump is fighting to be overthrown a judge’s ruling on February 16 that he lied about his wealth while nurturing the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.

The lawsuit focused on how Trump’s assets were valued on financial statements that went to bankers and insurers to obtain loans and deals.

Trump denies all allegations and actually says the statements his fortune reducedcame with disclaimers and were not taken at face value by the institutions that lent or insured him.

The state court’s Appellate Division has said it will hear arguments in September. No specific date has been set. If the schedule holds, it will fall in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Under New York law, filing an appeal generally does not stay enforcement of a judgment.

But there is an automatic pause – in legal parlance, a stay – if the person or entity obtains a bond that guarantees payment of what is owed.

Courts sometimes grant exceptions and reduce the amount required for a stay, as in Trump’s case.

Trump’s lawyers had told the appeals court that more than 30 bond companies were unwilling to put up a mix of cash and real estate as collateral for a bond worth more than $454 million.

Underwriters insisted on only cash, stock or other liquid assets, the lawyers said.

They said most surety bonds require collateral covering 120 percent of the amount owed.

Trump recently claimed he had nearly half a billion dollars in cash — along with billions of dollars in real estate and other assets — but said he wanted some cash available for his presidential run.

Recent legal debts have drained a significant portion of Trump’s cash reserves.

In addition to the $175 million he had to raise in the New York case, Trump has posted bail and cash worth more than $97 million to cover the money he owes to writer E. Jean Carroll while he is in higher appeals judgments in a federal civil proceeding. trials.

Juries found he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her when she went public with the accusation in 2019. He denies all accusations.

In February, Trump paid the $392,638 in legal fees that a judge ordered him to cover for The New York Times and three reporters after he unsuccessfully sued them over a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning story about his family’s wealth and tax practices.

A British court in March ordered Trump to pay legal costs of £300,000 ($382,000) to a company he unsuccessfully sued over the so-called Steele dossier that contained salacious allegations about him. Trump said these claims were false.

Trump could eventually generate cash by selling some of the stock almost 60 percent of the shares he owns his new social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, but that could be a longer-term issue.

His stake could be worth billions of dollars, but a lock-up provision prevents insiders like him from selling their shares for six months.