NY AG blasts Trump for ‘unreliable’ claim he can’t secure bond for $454 million fraud judgment - Courthouse News Service
The New York Attorney General’s Office cast doubts over Donald Trump’s assertion that posting a bond for his half-billion-dollar civil fraud judgment is a “practical impossibility.”
.....
“Defendants’ argument that obtaining a full bond is purportedly impossible is based on the false premise that they must obtain a single bond from a single surety for the entire judgment amount of $464 million,” state attorney Dennis Fan wrote in a Wednesday filing. “But appealing parties may bond large judgments by dividing the bond amount among multiple sureties, thereby limiting any individual surety’s risk to a smaller sum, such as $100 or $200 million apiece.”
.....
Fan said Wednesday that there is “nothing unusual about even billion-dollar judgments being fully bonded on appeal.” He cited four cases, with posted bonds ranging from $1 billion to $1.54 billion, in which the appealing parties did just that.
Trump blamed his bond difficulties, in part, on sureties being unwilling to accept his properties as collateral. But Fan says Trump has offered “no documentary evidence” that demonstrates which properties he offered or why the sureties were hesitant to accept them.
“As far as the court can infer, sureties may have refused to accept defendants’ specific holdings as collateral because using Mr. Trump’s real estate will generally need ‘a property appraisal’ and his holdings are not nearly as valuable as defendants claim,” Fan said.
....
Fan also blasted the “unreliable” sources Trump used to voice these concerns in the first place, namely two affidavits filed Monday to back up his claims that getting a bond would be “impossible.” One was from Connecticut mega broker Gary Giulietti, who Fan said failed to disclose that he was a paid expert witness for Trump. The other was from Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten, whom the court found to be “personally involved in the fraudulent and illegal conduct.”
....
As it stands, Trump has until March 25 to secure the judgment before New York Attorney General Letitia James starts seizing his assets, putting a number of his state properties on the chopping block.