{"id":25270,"date":"2024-03-25T22:32:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T03:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25270"},"modified":"2024-03-25T22:33:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T03:33:01","slug":"court-agrees-to-pause-collection-of-trumps-massive-civil-fraud-judgment-if-he-puts-up-175m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25270","title":{"rendered":"Court agrees to pause collection of Trump\u2019s massive civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A New York appeals court on Monday agreed to hold off collection of former President Donald Trump\u2019s more than $454 million civil fraud judgment<\/u><\/a> if he puts up $175 million within 10 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Trump does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee\u2019s assets while he appeals<\/u><\/a>. The appeals court also halted other aspects of a trial judge\u2019s ruling that had barred Trump and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the family company\u2019s executive vice presidents, from serving in corporate leadership for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, the order was a significant victory for the Republican ex-president as he defends the real estate empire that vaulted him into public life. The development came just before New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, was expected to initiate efforts to collect the judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, who was attending a separate hearing in his criminal hush money case<\/u><\/a> in New York, hailed the ruling and said he would post a bond, securities or cash to cover the $175 million sum in the civil case. Speaking in a courthouse hallway, Trump revisited his oft-stated complaints about civil trial Judge Arthur Engoron<\/u><\/a> and the penalty he imposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cWhat he\u2019s done is such a disservice and should never be allowed to happen again,\u201d said Trump, who argues that the fraud case is discouraging business in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>James\u2019 office, meanwhile, noted that the judgment still stands, even if collection is paused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDonald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud,\u201d the office said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s lawyers had pleaded for a state appeals court to halt collection, claiming it was \u201ca practical impossibility\u201d to get an underwriter to sign off on a bond for such a large sum, which grows daily because of interest. The Trump attorneys had earlier proposed a $100 million bond<\/u><\/a>, but an appellate judge had said no late last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday\u2019s ruling came from a five-judge panel in the state\u2019s intermediate appeals court, called the Appellate Division, where Trump is fighting to overturn Engoron\u2019s Feb. 16 decision<\/u><\/a>. Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Christopher Kise characterized Monday\u2019s ruling as a key first step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siding with the attorney general after a monthslong civil trial<\/u><\/a>, Engoron found that Trump, his company and top executives lied about his wealth<\/u><\/a> on financial statements, conning bankers and insurers who did business with him. The statements valued Trump\u2019s penthouse for years as though it were nearly three times its actual size<\/u><\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Trump and his co-defendants denied any wrongdoing, saying the statements actually lowballed his fortune<\/u><\/a>, came with disclaimers and weren\u2019t taken at face value<\/u><\/a> by the institutions that lent to or insured him. The penthouse discrepancy, he said, was simply a mistake made by subordinates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million, plus interest. Some co-defendants, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were ordered to pay far smaller amounts. Monday\u2019s ruling also puts those on hold if the $175 million bond is posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After James won the judgment, she didn\u2019t seek to enforce it during a legal time-out for Trump to ask the appeals court for a reprieve from paying up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That period ended Monday, though James could have decided to allow Trump more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James told ABC News<\/u><\/a> last month that if Trump doesn\u2019t have the money to pay, she would seek to seize his assets<\/u><\/a>. She didn\u2019t detail the process or specify what holdings she meant, and her office has declined more recently to discuss its plans. Meanwhile, the office has filed notice of the judgment, a technical step toward potentially moving to collect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump maintained on social media on Friday that he has almost $500 million<\/u><\/a> in cash, but he said at a news conference on Monday that he\u2019d like to be able to use some on his presidential run. He asserted that James and Engoron<\/u><\/a>, who\u2019s also a Democrat, \u201cdon\u2019t want me taking cash out to use it for the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the penalty is ultimately upheld, the attorney general could go after Trump\u2019s bank and investment accounts. There\u2019s also the possibility of going through a legal process to seize properties such as his Trump Tower penthouse, aircraft, Wall Street office building or golf courses, and then seeking to sell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that could be complicated in Trump\u2019s case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinding buyers for assets of this magnitude is something that doesn\u2019t happen overnight,\u201d noted Stewart Sterk, a real estate law professor at Cardozo School of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under New York law, filing an appeal generally doesn\u2019t hold off enforcement of a judgment. But there\u2019s an automatic pause if the person or entity posts a bond covering what\u2019s owed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many defendants are able to get such a bond, but \u201cjudgments of this size are rare,\u201d said Joshua Naftalis, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat makes this one unusual is someone who is subject to an enormous amount of money and has to come up with it himself,\u201d Naftalis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ex-president\u2019s lawyers have said underwriters wanted 120%<\/u><\/a> of the judgment and wouldn\u2019t accept real estate as collateral. That would mean tying up over $557 million in cash, stocks and other liquid assets, and Trump\u2019s company needs some left over to run the business, his attorneys have said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They asked an appeals court to freeze collection without his posting a bond. The attorney general\u2019s office objected<\/u><\/a>, saying he hadn\u2019t explored every option for covering the amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeals court \u201cchose a middle ground\u201d by still requiring Trump to put up money but lowering the amount, Naftalis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A New York appeals court on Monday agreed to hold off collection of former President Donald Trump\u2019s more than $454 million civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. If Trump does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing the presumptive Republican presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[27410,1723,1230],"class_list":["post-25270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-collection","tag-court","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25276,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25270\/revisions\/25276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}