Former US President Donald Trump has secured a bond worth $175 million in his New York civil fraud case, thus preventing the state from seizing his assets.
Initially, Mr. Trump was mandated to pay a $464 million judgment, but an appeals court permitted him to deposit a lesser amount within a span of 10 days.
It was determined in February that he had exaggerated the values of his properties.
The former president refutes any misconduct, claiming the lawsuit is a politically motivated attack by the Democratic prosecutor.
Should his appeal not succeed, Mr. Trump will need to furnish the full $464 million. His attorneys had previously contended that arranging for a bond of that magnitude would be “practically impossible.”
The Monday bond payment temporarily protects Mr. Trump from losing key real estate holdings, including Trump Tower in Manhattan and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“As promised, President Trump has posted bond. He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict,” Mr. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement.
The lawsuit against Mr. Trump was initiated by Letitia James, the New York Attorney General and a Democrat, in 2022.
The presiding Justice Arthur Engoron, also a Democrat, largely agreed with Ms. James that Mr. Trump had misrepresented his assets to secure loans and favorable interest rates over several years.
Mr. Trump maintained that the lawsuit was baseless as all loans were repaid with interest and no financial institution had taken legal action against him over the inflated net worth estimates.
Furthermore, Justice Engoron prohibited Mr. Trump from operating a business in New York for three years and from obtaining loans from state financial institutions during this period.
The decision created a substantial financial pressure for Mr. Trump, who has claimed in legal testimonies and on social media platforms to have between $400 million and $500 million in liquid assets.
Forbes Magazine values his net worth at $5.7 billion, a figure that significantly increased following the public offering of Truth Social’s parent company last week.
Concurrently with this fraud case, Mr. Trump also arranged a $91 million bond in a separate defamation lawsuit loss to writer E. Jean Carroll.
To postpone the fraud case penalty while appealing, Mr. Trump initially approached 30 companies for a bond but failed to secure one, as detailed by his legal team.
The appeals court not only lowered the bond amount but also paused the restrictions on his business activities and loan acquisitions pending the outcome of his appeal against Justice Engoron’s decision. The final decision on the case may take several months or more.
In the meantime, Mr. Trump is preparing for his first criminal trial regarding alleged hush-money payments to an adult film actress before the 2016 election, set to start on April 15 in Manhattan.
He also faces charges in two more cases related to attempts to contest his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden and mishandling classified documents after leaving office, to all of which he has pleaded not guilty.
