Former US President Donald Trump has posted a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case, thereby staving off asset seizures by the state.
Originally ordered to pay the full $464 million judgment against him, an appeals court granted him the opportunity to pay the smaller sum within 10 days after being found in February to have fraudulently inflated property values.
Trump, a Republican, denies any wrongdoing and has labelled the case a political witch hunt by the Democratic prosecutor. His lawyers argued that securing a bond for the full amount would be a “practical impossibility.”
The bond payment, made on Monday, will temporarily spare Trump the potential humiliation of seeing his real estate assets, including Trump Tower in Manhattan and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, seized.
His lawyer, Alina Habba, stated, “As promised, President Trump has posted bond. He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict.”
The civil fraud case against Trump was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, in 2022. Justice Arthur Engoron, also a Democrat, broadly sided with James’ argument, ordering Trump to pay a steep price for fraudulently misrepresenting his assets to obtain more favourable loans and interest rates over several years.
The ruling not only required Trump to pay a significant sum but also barred him from running a New York business for three years and from obtaining loans from New York financial institutions during the same period.
Despite Trump’s claims of substantial cash reserves and his net worth, Forbes Magazine currently estimates his net worth at $5.7 billion, which surged after the parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social, went public recently.
While Trump awaits the appeal decision, his first criminal trial over alleged attempts to fraudulently conceal hush-money payments to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election is scheduled to begin on April 15 in Manhattan.
Additionally, he faces charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and mishandling classified documents post-presidency, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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