MANHATTAN (CN) — Donald Trump so far has been unsuccessful in getting a bond to secure the $454 million civil fraud judgment against him, despite “diligent efforts” to do so, according to court records.
“These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers,” Trump claimed in a Monday court filing.
Trump is appealing the judgment from New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who last month ordered the former president to pay the exorbitant disgorgement penalty after ruling that he lied about his net worth to swindle banks issuing loans to the Trump Organization.
In order to stay the enforcement of the judgment pending appeal, Trump needs to post a bond of close to half a billion dollars to sit in escrow as the appellate process plays out. But Trump’s team on Monday, reiterating their ask for a delay, claimed that getting a bond of that size is “impossible.”
“A bond requirement of this enormous magnitude — effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion — is unprecedented for a private company,” Trump claimed, adding that he’s spent “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world,” to no avail.
Trump asked for oral arguments to be scheduled on the matter if the appellate court is considering denying him a stay of the judgment’s enforcement. As it stands, Trump needs to post the full bond to keep state officials from seizing his assets.
For every day the judgment goes unpaid, Trump racks up an additional more than $100,000 in interest.
Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked the court to require Trump to pay the whole amount, claiming there are “substantial risks” that could leave the state with “a largely unsecured judgment pending appeal.”
“Defendants have never demonstrated that Mr. Trump’s liquid assets — which may fluctuate over time — will be enough to satisfy the full amount of this judgment following appeal,” James said in a filing.
The state attorney general hasn’t been shy about her intentions to start seizing Trump’s properties if he doesn’t pay what he owes.
“If he does not have the 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 told ABC News last month.
Trump previously offered to post a $100 million bond for an interim stay. He claimed that amount, combined with the oversight of a court-appointed monitor at the Trump Organization, would “alone be sufficient to adequately secure any judgment affirmed.”
Associate Justice Anil Singh disagreed. He denied Trump’s $100 million bond offer, but temporarily lifted some of the other punishments in Engoron’s order that precluded Trump from taking out loans from New York banks.
James brought the case against Trump in 2022, claiming that the former president inflated his net worth on yearly financial statements, which he sent to banks and insurers during various business transactions.
Following a ten-week trial that wrapped up in late 2023, Engoron issued his scathing order against Trump, finding that he conned lenders out of millions with his financial misstatements.
“The frauds here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” Engoron wrote in his ruling.
Trump continues to deny wrongdoing, repeatedly claiming that both the judge and James are engaging in election interference in a conspiratorial effort to keep him out of the White House come November.
It’s far from the only high-profile legal battle he faces this election cycle, however. Earlier this month, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond to secure an $83.3 million defamation verdict for writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump is also expected to stand a criminal trial in Manhattan next month on charges that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
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