Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond Monday in his civil fraud case in New York, blocking collection of the more than $454 million he owes and preventing the state from seizing his assets to satisfy the debt while he appeals, according to a court filing.
A New York appeals court had given the former president 10 days to pay the money after a panel of judges agreed last month to cut the amount needed to stop the clock on the execution.
The bail Trump is now posting to the court is essentially a placeholder, intended to guarantee payment if the ruling is upheld. If this happens, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate will have to pay the state the entire sum, which grows with daily interest.
If Trump wins, he will not have to pay anything to the state and will recover the money he has allocated now.
“As promised, President Trump has posted bond. He looks forward to asserting his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict,” said one of Trump’s lawyers, Alina Habba.
Until the appeals court intervened to lower the required bail, New York Attorney General Letitia James was poised to begin efforts to collect the judgment, possibly by seizing some of Trump’s key properties. James, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state. Her office declined to comment Monday.
The court ruled after Trump’s lawyers complained that it was “virtually impossible” to get an underwriter to sign a bond for the $454 million, plus interest, he owes.
The company that underwrote the bond is Knight Specialty Insurance, which is part of the Knight Insurance Group. That company’s president, billionaire Don Hankey, told The Associated Press that both cash and bonds were used as collateral for Trump’s appellate bond.
“This is what we do at Knight Insurance, and we’re happy to do it for anyone who needs a bond,” said Hankey, who is best known in the business world for making high-risk, high-interest loans to buyers of cars with imperfect credit histories. Hankey told the AP he had never met or spoken to Trump.
Trump is fighting to overturn a judge’s Feb. 16 ruling that he lied about his wealth while promoting the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency. The trial focused on how Trump’s assets were valued in financial statements sent to bankers and insurers to obtain loans and settlements.
Trump denies any wrongdoing, saying the statements actually understated his fortune, came with disclaimers and were not taken literally by the institutions that lent or insured him.
The Appellate Division of state courts said it would hear arguments in September. No specific date has been set. If the program holds, it will fall in the final weeks of the presidential race.
Under New York law, filing an appeal generally does not prevent enforcement of a sentence. But there is an automatic pause – in legalese, a stay – if the person or entity obtains a bond guaranteeing payment of what is owed.
Sometimes courts grant exceptions and reduce the amount sought for suspension, as in Trump’s case.
Trump’s lawyers had told the appeals court that more than 30 bail bond companies were unwilling to take a mix of cash and real estate as collateral for a more than $454 million bond. The insurers insisted only on cash, stocks or other liquid assets, lawyers said.
They said most bond companies require collateral covering 120% of the amount owed.
Trump recently said he has nearly half a billion dollars in cash — along with billions of dollars in real estate and other assets — but said he wants to have some cash on hand for his presidential run.
Recent legal debts have taken a sizable chunk of Trump’s cash reserves.
In addition to the $175 million he had to post in the New York case, Trump has posted bail and cash worth more than $97 million to cover the money he owes writer E. Jean Carroll as she appeals the verdicts in a pair of federal civil lawsuits. tests. Juries found he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her when he went public with the allegations in 2019. He denies all the allegations.
In February, Trump paid $392,638 in legal fees that a judge ordered him to cover for The New York Times and three journalists after he unsuccessfully sued them over a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning article about his family’s wealth and tax practices.
In March, a British court ordered Trump to pay legal costs of £300,000 ($382,000) to a company he had unsuccessfully sued over the so-called Steele dossier that contained salacious allegations against him. Trump said those claims were false.
Trump could eventually generate cash by selling some of the nearly 60% stake he owns in his new public social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, but that would be a long-term move. Trump’s stake could be worth billions of dollars, but a “lock-up” clause prevents insiders like him from selling their shares for six months.