Former President Trump has less than a week to secure a half billion-dollar bond or risk the seizure of his assets as he challenges a trial court’s finding that he conspired to alter his net worth for tax and insurance benefits.
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A New York judge found Trump liable for fraud last year ahead of a months-long trial that ended with the judge imposing a massive $464 million penalty on the Trump Organization.
Trump’s lawyers admitted Monday that despite the former president’s “diligent efforts,” it is “impossible” for him to secure a full appeals bond in that amount due to lack of cash on hand.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who oversaw Trump’s civil fraud trial, ordered the former president to pay a $454 million judgment in line with penalties requested by the New York attorney general’s office, which sued Trump in 2022 over deceitful business practices.
With interest piling on an additional $112,000 each day Trump doesn’t pay, the former president now owes the state $456.8 million.
Trump’s lawyers are seeking to obtain a bond so that the enforcement of the eye-popping judgment would be automatically paused while they appeal Engoron’s ruling. But to obtain the bond, Trump must post collateral covering 120 percent of the judgment — more than $557 million, the lawyers said in a court filing.
A bond in the full amount is due March 25, the same day Trump's hush money criminal trial was scheduled to get underway before a last-minute document dump delayed the proceeding by at least a month.
The judgment in the fraud trial comes on top of another $91 million Trump owes in a defamation case involving columnist E. Jean Carroll. Trump was able to secure a bond for that judgment, but it is unclear what collateral he put up to do so.