Former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants have secured a $175 million bond in their New York civil fraud case, according to a court filing.
Trump secured the bond through Knight Specialty Insurance Company.
Last Monday, a panel of judges from New York’s Appellate Division granted the former president, his adult sons, and two former Trump Organization executives a 10-day stay of the $464 million judgment in their civil fraud case and permitted them to post a reduced bond of $175 million.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that the former president lacked the cash to secure a bond for the full judgment after being rejected by more than 30 bond companies.
Without intervention from an appeals court, defense lawyers argued that Trump would suffer irreparable harm by having to sell off his namesake properties before he exhausted his appeal of the fraud ruling.
In February, following a three-month trial, Judge Arthur Engoron fined Trump and his co-defendants after finding they had engaged in a decade of business fraud by falsely inflating the former president’s net worth to get better loans and business deals.
“The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” Engoron wrote.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Rome, Ga., March 9, 2024.
Mike Stewart/AP, FILE
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and his lawyers have appealed the ruling in the case, arguing that the disgorgement amount was unconstitutional, disproportionate, and flawed. Defense lawyers argue that Judge Engoron misapplied the statute of limitations for Trump’s conduct and that New York Attorney General Letitia James failed to prove Trump’s misrepresentations were relevant to the former president’s lenders.
“There is no evidence, and no finding by Supreme Court, that the relevant lenders and insurers would not have given Defendants loans and policies on the same terms in the absence of the supposed ‘misrepresentations,'” defense lawyers said in a March filing.
If their appeal fails, the former president and his co-defendants will be on the hook for the entire $464 million judgment.
If Trump does not have the cash to cover the full judgment and his appeal is unsuccessful, James could enforce the judgment by seizing Trump’s assets.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James said in a recent interview with ABC News. “We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers.”
In the defamation suit brought against Trump by the writer E. Jean Carroll, Trump secured a $92 million bond through insurance company Chubb after a jury in January found him liable for defaming her. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, has filed a notice of appeal in that case.
The former president used a brokerage account as collateral for that bond.
Source: abc news
