Less than a month after New York Attorney General Letitia James said she would be willing to seize former Republican President Donald Trumpā€™s assets if he is unable to pay the $464 million required by last monthā€™sĀ judgmentĀ in his civil fraud case, Trumpā€™s lawyers disclosed in court filings Monday that he had failed to secure a bond for the amount.

In the nearly 5,000-page filing, lawyers for TrumpĀ saidĀ it has proven a ā€œpractical impossibilityā€ for Trump to secure a bond from any financial institutions in the state, as ā€œabout 30 surety companiesā€ have refused to accept assets including real estate as collateral and have demanded cash and other liquid assets instead.

To get the institutions to agree to cover that $464 million judgment if Trump loses his appeal and fails to pay the state, he would have to pledge more than $550 million as collateralā€”ā€œa sum he simply does not have,ā€Ā reportedThe New York Times, despite his frequent boasting of his wealth and business prowess.

  • Tyfud@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    You donā€™t have the option of looking at a court judgement like an investment opportunity. This is a legal judgement. You donā€™t get to ā€œhold onto cashā€ just because not having it would risk exposure or something.

    You do this, or they start selling your assets off for an unflattering amount of money, and/or you can go to jail, or have all of the things you owned possessed and auctioned off to pay for the judgement.

    The thing you donā€™t get to do is not pay.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      This isnā€™t about him paying his legal bill, itā€™s about a bond to appeal.

      Using all your cash to appeal is a bad idea for ANYONE

      if you lose the appeal, you can then decide on your cash and asset mix to pay it off.

      Edit: think about it this way. If you can put up asset collateral on a appeal thatā€™ll take a year, thatā€™s a whole year you could be earning interest on the cash and have cash for an emergency. Maybe you go half and half so you donā€™t risk as much of the other assets. Leaving yourself with no cash is just bad. Heā€™s in a really bad situation so maybe he only has bad options, but that doesnā€™t mean itā€™s not bad.

      • Tyfud@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Thatā€™s fair. Youā€™re correct, I wasnā€™t thinking about it in that context.