In the end, Donald Trump escaped paying the whopping more than $457 million he owes in his
civil commercial fraud
case , whose payment date was due today.
A New York appeals court on Monday authorized the former president to pay a much lower bail than that originally established in a civil fraud case.
The former president
must now pay bail of $175 million within 10 days
, while the appeal for the sentence that fined him $457 million is resolved
,
even while he appeals the sentence that generated the gigantic debt.
This is an important lifeline for the former president, who, along with some of his children and his company, was fined after Judge Arthur Engoron noted that Trump and the other defendants fraudulently
inflated the value of their assets.
After the state's attorney general,
Letitia James
, won the ruling, she did not attempt to enforce it during a legal timeout for Trump to ask an appeals court for a stay.
State Attorney General Letitia James.
Photo: AP
The period for full payment ended this Monday, and one possibility was that the state's attorney general, Letitia James, decided
to give Trump more time
.
James, a Democrat, had told ABC News last month that
if Trump does not have the money to pay
, she would seek to
seize his assets
and was "prepared to make sure the judgment is paid."
"My babies"
James did not then detail the process or specify which shares he was referring to.
A protester mocks Trump for saying he has no money, outside the courthouse in Manhattan.
Photo: AP
Trump, while addressing a separate hearing Monday morning
in his criminal
hush money case against a porn actress, criticized in social media posts the civil judgment and the possibility that James would try to enforce it.
Presenting the case as
a plot by Democrats
, the former president claimed that they were trying to take his money to starve his 2024 campaign.
“I intended to use a lot of my hard-earned money to run for president. They don't want me to do that: ELECTORAL INTERFERENCE!”
he wrote she on her Truth Social platform.
Referring to his property as
"my 'babies,'"
he bristles at the idea of being forced to sell it or see it confiscated.
What assets could be confiscated from Trump?
Asset seizure
is a common legal option
when someone does not have the cash to pay a civil court fine.
In Trump's case, potential targets could include properties like his
Trump Tower
penthouse ,
airplanes, Wall Street office buildings or golf courses.
Trump Tower in New York.
Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP
The attorney general
could also go after your bank and investment accounts
.
Trump maintained on social media Friday that he has nearly
$500 million in cash
but that he intends to use much of it in his presidential run.
He has accused James and New York State Judge Arthur Engoron, who is also a Democrat, of trying to
“take my money so I couldn't use it in the campaign.”
One possibility would be for James' office to go through a legal process to have local authorities seize the properties and
then try to sell them
.
But that's a complicated prospect in the Trump case, said Stewart Sterk, a real estate law professor at Cardozo Law School.
"Finding buyers for assets of this magnitude
is something that doesn't happen overnight,"
he said, noting that in any ordinary auction, "the chances that people will be able to bid up to the real value of the property are quite high." .
slim."
Trump's debt arises from a month-long civil trial last fall over state allegations that he, his company and top executives
grossly inflated his wealth
on financial statements, defrauding bankers and insurers who did business with him.
The statements valued his
penthouse
for years as if, for example, it were
almost three times his actual size.
Trump and his co-defendants
denied any wrongdoing
and said the statements actually reduced his fortune, came with disclaimers and were not taken at face value by the institutions that lent or insured him.
The penthouse discrepancy, he said,
was simply a mistake made by subordinates.
Protesters await Trump's arrival at the Court.
Photo: AP
Engoron sided with the attorney general and ordered Trump to pay
$355 million, plus interest
that grew by the day.
Some co-defendants, including his sons and the company's executive vice presidents, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were ordered to pay much smaller amounts.
Under New York law, filing an appeal
generally does not postpone the execution of a sentence.
But there is an automatic pause if the person or entity pays a deposit that covers what is owed.
The former president's lawyers have said it is impossible for him to do that.
They said the insurers wanted 120% of the judgment and would not accept real estate as collateral.
That would mean tying up more than $557 million in cash, stocks and other liquid assets, and Trump's company needs some leftover to run the business, his lawyers have said.
Trump's lawyers have asked an appeals court
to freeze the payment without him posting bail
.
The attorney general's office has objected.
From the Associated Press and Efe