- Written by Madeline Halpert
- BBC News, New York
image source, Getty Images
Trump's lawyers said they approached dozens of bond companies but were unable to secure one.
Donald Trump has been unable to find a private company to guarantee the $464m (£365m) he was ordered to pay in a New York civil fraud case.
The former president must pay the full amount in cash or secure bail to continue his appeal.
Trump said it would be “virtually impossible” to secure bonds of this size.
He faces the prospect of some of his real estate assets being liquidated if he doesn't pay up.
For a fee, the bonding company will guarantee the entire amount to a New York court.
They would have to pay the money if Trump loses his appeal and is unable to pay himself.
Trump said in a statement that the required bond payments are “not possible for any company, including a successful company like mine.”
“Bond companies have never heard of bonds of this size before,” he said.
Trump's lawyers said in a court filing that his team “spent countless hours negotiating with one of the world's largest insurance companies.”
But they concluded that “few bond companies would consider bonds of this size.”
Lawyers said they approached 30 companies without success.
Trump's two eldest sons will also have to pay millions of dollars in the lawsuit.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron found that the former president improperly inflated his assets to secure more favorable loan deals, ordered Mr. Trump to pay a fine and ordered him to run a business in the state. was banned for three years.
A judge suspended Trump's business ban last month, but rejected his offer to provide a smaller $100 million bail to cover the fine.
Lawyers for the former president attached to their latest filing an affidavit from the president of a private insurance company that said, “Simply put, bonds of this magnitude are rare, if ever, to be seen.”
“In the unusual circumstances of a bond issue of this magnitude, it is being offered to the world's largest publicly traded company, rather than to an individual or private company,” the lawyers said.
Former federal prosecutor Diana Florence said Trump's unprecedented legal situation makes it difficult to predict his next steps, and fines of this size are typically levied against large corporations. He also said.
Her lawyers are playing a game of delay until he appeals the sentence, but now “he may be in trouble,” she said.
“He faces the real possibility that the AG will begin liquidation.” [his assets]And he's really dependent on whether the court will give him more time,” Florence said.
New York's attorney general has vowed to seize Trump's assets if he does not pay the fraud judgment.
Until he pays, interest on the penalty will accrue at least $112,000 per day.
Trump's lawyers said the bond company would not accept “hard assets such as real estate as collateral” for bonds, but only cash or “cash equivalents” such as investments that can be liquidated quickly.
Forbes magazine estimates that Trump is worth about $2.6 billion. He testified last year that he had $400 million in liquid assets.
The $464 million judgment is not his only expense. In January, he was ordered to pay $83 million after losing a defamation lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found to have sexually abused. In that case, he has already posted a bond.
Trump hit another legal hurdle Monday in one of the four criminal cases he faces.
A New York judge has rejected a motion by the former president to block two key witnesses from testifying in a case in which he is accused of falsifying business records to hide hush-money payments.
Judge Juan Marchan said Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels could present evidence at the trial, which could begin as early as April.
