Lawyers for former US President Donald Trump said despite approaching 30 underwriters, he’s been unable to find an insurance company to cover the $464 million judgment against him in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case.
The bond is due by the end of this month, and Trump must pay the full amount in cash or secure a bond from a company, which would have to pay the amount if Mr Trump loses his appeal and cannot pay himself.
Trump’s team said they had spent “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world” in vain. Even though the value of Trump’s properties far exceed the judgment, bond companies would not accept “hard assets such as real estate as collateral” for the bond, and wanted only cash or stock that can be quickly liquidated.
“In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” the lawyers said.
“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers said. Securing a bond for the full amount “is a practical impossibility,” Gary Giulietti, an insurance broker who testified for Trump during the trial, said in a signed affidavit.
Trump was ordered to pay $355 million by New York Judge Arthur Engoron in a civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Finding that the defendants fraudulently inflated the value of Trump’s assets to obtain more favorable loan and insurance rates, Engoron ruled that Trump and his co-defendants – including his adult sons – were liable for fraud, conspiracy and submitting false financial statements and business records.
Trump is appealing the ruling, but to stop the state from enforcing the judgment, he must post a bond to be held in an account pending the appeal. Earlier this month, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond as part of his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.
New York’s attorney general has vowed to seize his assets if he does not pay the fraud penalty, which will keep accruing interest by at least $112,000 per day until he pays, according to the BBC.
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