Trump Spurned by 30 Companies as He Tries to Raise $454 Million Bond in Fraud Case - The New York Times
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • one month ago • 56 commentsBy: Ben Protess, Kate Christobek and Maggie Haberman (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald J. Trump's lawyers said in a court filing that he faces "insurmountable difficulties" as he tries to raise cash for the civil fraud penalty he faces in New York.
Donald J. Trump's filing one week before the bond is due raised the prospect that the former president might now face a financial crisis.Credit...Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times
By Ben Protess, Kate Christobek and Maggie Haberman
March 18, 2024Updated 2:21 p.m. ET
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.
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 companies would essentially promise to cover Mr. Trump's judgment if he lost an appeal and failed to pay. In exchange, he would pledge collateral and pay the company a fee as high as 3 percent of the bond.
They appear to be balking over a significant problem: Mr. Trump does not have enough liquidity to obtain the bond. To offer a bond of this size, the companies would require Mr. Trump to pledge more than $550 million in cash, stocks and bonds 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.
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the orange menace is claiming he has $500 million in cash on truth social, while his lawyers are claiming he can't raise the cash...
Is he a lunatic? Does he not care that he is just compounding his legal problems? I just do not understand why any attorney would be willing to represent Trump when he makes their job impossible.
Yes, and the judge is already demanding to know the sources of any funds posted for Trump's bond...
Why would any attorney be willing to represent Trump? Two possible reasons, I guess.
1. To get paid (by the RNC).
2. Notoriety.
Or, maybe they just think Trump is a really great guy. Nah...
It looks like Leticia James will have to seize Trump's properties...
We posted similar articles at the same time. I've deleted mine.
If this scoundrel is elected PotUS, he will be even more dangerous now. He is vindictive and irresponsible by nature but now his raison d’etre —wealth— has been seriously harmed.
He will and so will a few of his cult followers.
I think it will be more than a few ! As we used to say in Uncle Sam's yacht club, "Stand-by for heavy rolls".
"wealth"
Dirt rich, cash poor
Likely, but hundreds of millions of dollars is painful for Trump. This is not something he will let go.
That said, I wish we were dealing with his cases to hold him accountable for his actions as PotUS, not as private citizen Trump.
Those cases are what really matter to the nation ... to start to reverse the horrible historical precedent that Trump has set.
If Trump wins, the secret service will have their hands full protecting him.
If Biden wins the secret service will have a hard time keeping him safe due to far-right wing gun owning fascists.
Either way, I feel sorry for the bodyguards.
Trump's current Secret Service details are probably all really FBI agents assigned to watch, keep notes and collect evidence...
trump indicted and awaiting trial for willfully retaining classified documents, and now facing a half billion in judgements against him, probably isn't much of a national security risk... /s
Why doesn't he liquidate some of his assets?
It might be what the court asks. He's running out of time. At this point can he push through a sale in time to make that bond? According to a quick search on da googles it takes 45 to 65 days to close on commercial properties. It's possible to quick sale in 5 to 10 business days, but he'd probably take a huge loss.
And I think you would be correct. People knowing the trouble he is in may not even go $.50 on a dollar
He may have too much debt on his properties. How many and how big of loans does he have against his myriad properties.
There is also the matter of time, he should have seen this coming years ago and taken steps to prepare for the possibility, however his narcissism may have prevented him from even considering the possibility of loss. So he never took those steps to deal with the fallout of losing the case(s).
Liquidating assets will be done for him.
Hope Mar A Lardo goes first.
About time he finally pays for his lifetime of crime!
he probably doesn't have that much equity in all his properties combined. he's already leveraged those properties at inflated values to borrow against them previously, and now in the real world it wouldn't surprise me if he's upside down in their real value.
ooohhhhh shit
IMO the silence from the court appointed trumpco business monitor is deafening.
Bye bye Trump Towers. Bye bye Mar-a-Lago.
The court may grant his stay on bond, but I'd expect it to continue to accrue interest while the appeal proceeds.
I can't think of a valid reason for a stay. I agree that interest would be expected to continue to accrue.
Possible, but maybe not probable?
Well, anything is possible. The fact that Trump can't afford to post the money, and no one will post a bond on his behalf, seems to be exactly the reason the court should allow the AG to proceed against his properties. The money is for the protection of the plaintiff from a deadbeat like Trump if he loses his appeal.
Can he make the interest payments on the penalty as a short-term remedy? Even that would seem steep, especially if he loses on appeal.
I believe that he is required to post the full amount unless for some reason a court orders otherwise. Just making the interest payments does not fulfill the purpose of the bond posting, which is to protect the plaintiff from a deadbeat defendant who loses an appeal.
Trump has spent his whole life demanding stays in every suit against him. The more time, the more lawyers charge and the more his chances of winning due to the opposition going broke.
These days his only hope is postponing all of the charges against him in the forlorn hope he can win the presidency and pardon himself from all of his many crimes.
Only a low IQ fascist sicko could possibly cast a vote for Trump.
Or traitorous, wretched scum
I'm in Hawaii right now and the Trump hotel in Honolulu is now called the Ka La'i Waikiki. They changed it in February.
Nice. Spring is beautiful in Hawaii.
It's my understanding that Trump has no ownership interest in that hotel. The use of his name was licensed by the owners. Since the name "Trump" is now synonymous with "traitor" and "disgrace", it's no surprise the owners dropped "Trump" from the hotel's name.
He huaka'i nui! (Have a great trip!)
why can't all those trump name licensees file a class action suit against a-hole for detonating the brand...
Creative thinking, but it probably wouldn't qualify. For one thing, the class of aggrieved parties is likely not sufficient to satisfy the numerosity requirement.
I didn't know that G. It kind of makes sense though since he probably couldn't sell it that quickly. Mahalo.
So morals clauses still exist?
Doubt Trump would have ever signed one of those contracts! After all, he has no morals.
Why isn't Chubb posting the bond they did for his $93 million bond for his Jean Carrol bond.
Perhaps he had kept his mouth shut in the Carrol case he wouldn't be looking at $93 million.
Chubb isn't a group of fools they will not take any of his RE as security, he probably overvalued it and they don't like that...KARMA
He will only take cash or stock in collateral and Trump doesn't have enough liquidity to cover the $500M needed for the new bond.
News report (CBS) says most won't guarantee anything over $100,000,000.
maybe maga could have a bake sale and lemonade stand...
In Trump's case it would be a Kool Aid stand.
yeah, that makes more sense...
all he really needs is for his 25 million true believer dipshits to cough up $50 each and he's good to go ...
Exactly.
LOL, there was a usa today story on my news feed about maga holding a bake sale...
Don't buy anything. You haven't seen their kitchens. Probably dog hair all over the place
as if ... my first thought - I hope the folding table doesn't crack my windshield or get tangled in the undercarriage.
Is there such a thing as a meth brownie?
He does remind many of Jim Jones.
Would have no problem with Trump demanding the same endgame of his braindead followers.
A few things, he is not nearly as rich as he pretends, and is cash poor. Not only that he has such a shitty reputation with lenders/investors these days (they should have woken up decades ago) that no one is going to take a chance on him. Anyone who posts that bond knows they are going to be left with all of it.
the number of suckers that are willing to send trump or the RNC their money have dropped off significantly...
yikes. yeah, he's a scratch golfer alright ...