Thirty insurance firms reject Trump's bond bid in $454M fraud case

US' ex-president Trump speaks during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. (Photo/AFP)

Thirty insurance companies, approached by Donald Trump to underwrite his nearly half-billion dollar bond in a state civil fraud case, after being found liable for misleading authorities and banks about the value of his real estate holdings, have rejected his requests, the former US president's lawyers told a New York court.

Trump must pay $454 million in fines and interest following a judgement from Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron in February. If Trump cannot secure the bond, he will have to pay in cash from his coffers, or risk his properties being seized and sold by the state authorities.

"A bond requirement of this enormous magnitude — effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion," attorneys wrote in the sprawling filling, "is unprecedented for a private company."

"Even when it comes to publicly traded companies, courts routinely waive or reduce the bond amount. Enforcing an impossible bond requirement as a condition of appeal would inflict manife st irreparable injury on Defendants," they said.

Trump's legal team is asking the New York Supreme Court to intervene to prevent state Attorney General Letitia James from collecting the judgement as early as next week, saying that doing so would cause Trump and his business empire "irreparable injury."

"Obtaining such cash through a 'fire sale' of real estate holdings would inevitably result in massive, irrecoverable losses — textbook irreparable injury," the lawyers said.

'Politically-motivated' charges

Judge Engoron issued his biting ruling following a month long civil fraud trial that sought to determine the damages that Trump was to pay after being found liable for misleading authorities and banks about the value of his real estate holdings.

The trial was focused squarely on the extent of damages that Trump would be forced to pay.

During the two-and-a-half months of proceedings in which dozens of witnesses provided testimony, the ex-president repeatedly bemoaned what he said were "rigged" proceedings and "politically-motivated" charges.

Trump lawyers have now disclosed that he has failed to secure $454 million 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.

Trump managed to put together a separate bond earlier this month for $91.6 million as he appeals a sexual assault and defamation judgment in a lawsuit brought by New York writer E. Jean Carroll.

But his lawyers said the leading bond providers all had internal policies preventing them from accepting real estate as collateral in the fraud case, and many would not exceed limits of $100 million.

That leaves Trump with the only option of posting 120 percent of the bond in cash and cash equivalents totaling $557.5 million, including fees and interest.

Trump testified in an April 2023 deposition in the same case that he had "substantially in excess of 400 million in cash" — but he had already developed a reputation by then for exaggerating his wealth.

He has asked the appeals court to delay the deadline for posting the bond until his appeal has been heard, arguing that his property empire is worth far more than the amount he owes.

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Source: TRT