The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, cannot find any company that will finance the bail of 464 million dollars that he has to pay in New York to be able to appeal the conviction for fraud with the Trump Organization. Last month, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him and his two oldest children to pay $355 million plus interest for civil fraud, for having inflated his assets for ten years to obtain advantageous conditions on loans from banks and insurers.
To prevent the state of New York from enforcing the sentence, he must post a bond before the end of the month that will be held in an account pending the appeal process, which could last years. But his lawyers stated in writing yesterday to a court that they have already contacted about 30 insurers to support the bail and none are willing to assume this amount.
“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few companies will consider bail of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s legal team wrote. For his part, an insurance broker who testified on behalf of the tycoon during the trial, Gary Giulietti, signed an affidavit stating that securing bail for that amount “is a practical impossibility.”
According to Giulietti, the internal policies of the main insurers limit them to insuring bonds of a maximum of 100 million dollars. For this reason, the magnate’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to postpone this payment until the litigation ends, arguing that Trump’s assets far exceed the sentence.
“Throughout my career, during which I have been directly or indirectly involved in issuing thousands of bonds, I have never heard of or seen an appeal bond of this size for a private company or an individual,” Giulietti said. “After a significant good faith effort over the past several weeks, obtaining appeal bail in the judgment amount of more than $464 million is not possible under these circumstances.”
Debts are piling up for the former president, who continues to try to simultaneously finance his expensive campaign and his legal fees. Earlier this month, he did manage to post $91.6 million bail as part of his appeal in the defamation case against writer Jean Carroll. In addition to these two civil convictions, Trump faces four criminal trials in New York, Washington, Georgia and Florida, which are also entailing significant legal expenses.
Instead, his rival in the November election, Joe Biden, is raising more money than ever for his campaign. This Tuesday, the environmental organization The League of Conservation Voters announced its plan to support Biden in these elections. He joins a dozen organizations outside his campaign – such as the leftist MoveOn, the group of moderate Republicans Republican Voters Against Trump or the super PAC Future Forward – that have already reserved 1 billion in support of the president so far this year. a sum that is estimated to reach 3 billion until the presidential elections in November.
