Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appeals court that Trump can not find an insurance company that is willing to underwrite his $464 million bond. Trump’s attorneys allege that he has contacted over 30 underwriters to back the bond that is due at the end of the month.
“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. Gary Giulietti, an insurance broker who testified for Trump in the civil case signed an affidavit stating that the bond is far too high for any insurance company to underwrite and that it “is a practical impossibility.” Giulietti continued to say that the largest insurance companies in the world have internal policies that prevent the securing of a bond over $100 million. Potential underwriters are requiring cash rather than properties to back the bond, a common practice. Trump’s lawyers have requested that the appeals court delay posting the bond until the appeals case is over.
Trump’s lawyers stated that recovering funds “through a ‘fire sale’ of real estate holdings would inevitably result in massive, irrecoverable losses — textbook irreparable injury.”
Last month, Trump was ordered to pay $335 million for inflating the value of his properties through fraud, conspiracy, and issuing false financial statements and false business records. Judge Arthur Engoron barred Trump from serving as director of a company in New York for three years. Trump is appealing this decision, but to ensure that the state does not enforce the ruling, he must post bond.
Trump posted a $91.6 million bond earlier this March as part of his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.
“Over the course of my career, during which I have been directly or indirectly involved in the issuance of thousands of bonds, I have never heard of nor seen an appeal bond of this size for a private company or individual,” Giulietti said, “After substantial good-faith effort over the last several weeks, obtaining an appeal bond for the Judgment Amount of over $464 million is just not possible under these circumstances.”
Including interest and fees, Giulietti believes that Trump would need to obtain more than $550 million.
