Trump fails to secure bond for $454 million judgment in civil fraud case
as asset seizures loom
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[March 19, 2024]
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump's efforts to secure a bond to cover a
$454 million judgment in a New York civil fraud case has been rejected
by 30 surety companies, his lawyers said on Monday, inching him closer
to the possibility of having his properties seized.
The former president must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or
post a bond to stave off the state's seizure while he appeals Justice
Arthur Engoron's Feb. 16 judgment against him for misstating property
values to dupe lenders and insurers.
Trump, two of his adult children and other Trump Organization executives
had so far approached the 30 companies through four separate brokers
without success, his lawyers said. The other defendants face judgments
totaling $10 million.
A bonding company would be on the hook for any payout if Trump loses his
appeal and proves unable to pay.
The case, brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James in
September 2022, is one of several legal travails the
businessman-turned-Republican candidate faces as he seeks a Nov. 5
election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump, 77, has denied wrongdoing and vowed to appeal the judgment, which
threatens his family's real estate empire.
He must post cash or a bond within 30 days of Engoron's formal entry of
the order on Feb. 23 or risk the state seizing some of the Trump
Organization's assets to ensure James can collect. Thirty days end on
March 25.
In a court filing on Monday, Trump's lawyers urged a mid-level state
appeals court to delay enforcement of the judgment, arguing the amount
was excessive. It was unclear when the court, known as the Appellate
Division, would rule.
The lawyers asked that Trump instead be allowed to post a $100 million
bond while he appeals the judgment.
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Gary Giulietti, an executive with insurance brokerage the Lockton
Companies hired by Trump to help get a bond, wrote in the court
filing that a bond for the full $464 million is not possible under
the circumstances presented.
Giulietti said many sureties would not issue bonds above $100
million and were willing to accept only cash or securities - not
real estate - as collateral.
"Enforcing an impossible bond requirement as a condition of appeal
would inflict manifest irreparable injury on Defendants," Trump's
lawyers wrote.
Before a three-month, non-jury trial began in October, Engoron found
Trump had engaged in fraud by overvaluing properties including his
Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, his penthouse apartment in Manhattan's
Trump Tower, and various office buildings and golf courses.
The trial dealt mostly with damages. In the Feb. 16 decision,
Engoron wrote that Trump and the other defendants "are incapable of
admitting the error of their ways."
Trump this month posted a $91.6 million bond to cover an $83.3
million defamation verdict for the writer E. Jean Carroll while he
appeals, in a case that arose from his branding her a liar after she
accused him of raping her decades ago. He has denied wrongdoing.
He has also pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases stemming from
his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, his handling of
government documents after leaving office in 2021, and hush money
paid before his 2016 election win to a porn star who said she had a
sexual encounter with him.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski,
Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
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