Lawyers for the New York Attorney General asked Judge Arthur Engoron on Friday to reject former President Donald Trump’s $175 million bond for his civil judgment and require him to post a new one within seven days.
Letitia James contended that the former president failed to demonstrate that Knight Specialty Insurance Company, the company behind his bond, had the resources to pay the bond if Trump’s appeal failed.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference following a ruling against former President Donald Trump ordering him to pay $354.9 million and barring him from doing business in New York State for three years, in New York, Feb. 16, 2024.
David Dee Delgado/Reuters, FILE
“Defendants and KSIC have failed to justify KSIC as the surety on this extraordinarily large undertaking for a number of reasons,” James said in the filing.
In February, Engoron determined that Trump and his co-defendants engaged in a decade-long scheme to inflate the former president’s net worth to get better business deals and interest rates on loans.
Trump was at risk of having his properties seized after he failed to obtain a bond for the $464 million judgment, but a New York Appellate Court reduced the amount of money Trump would need to post to $175 million.
Trump and his co-defendants posted a $175 million bond on April 1.
Former President Donald Trump and his lawyers Christopher Kise and Alina Habba attend the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York.
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The attorney general’s filing stated that Trump and the company failed to demonstrate the collateral of the bond beyond $175 million in cash in a Charles Schwab brokerage account. In the motion, James also raised concerns that KSIC uses affiliates in the Cayman Islands to reduce the liabilities shown on their books and allegedly violates federal laws.
“(KSIC is) a small insurer that is not authorized to write business in New York and thus not regulated by the state’s insurance department, had never before written a surety bond in New York or in the prior two years in any other jurisdiction, and has a total policyholder surplus of just $138 million,” James said in the filing.
Former President Donald Trump sits in New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, in New York, Jan. 11, 2024.
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Judge Engoron is scheduled to hold a hearing on this issue on Monday.
Don Hankey, the chairman of Knight Insurance Group, declined to comment on the matter.