Background: Trump Tower is in New York on Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)/Inset: Former President Donald Trump Jr. speaks to the press after attending wake for NYPD officer Jonathan Diller at Massapequa Funeral Home in Massapequa Park, NY on March 28, 2024. (Photo by Lev Radin/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Donald Trump will avoid seeing his assets seized after he was able to secure a bond of $175 million in his civil fraud case in New York.
The lifeline comes as Trump was on notice, as Law&Crime previously reported, to shore up the funding or face the entire $454 million judgment ordered against him. New York Attorney General Letitia James had also warned the former president in February that if he was unable to secure a bond on the fine, she would start seizing his assets, including buildings like 40 Wall Street in Manhattan.
The bond is backed by Knight Specialty Insurance Company of California and in a statement to ABC on Monday evening, the chairman of the company which owns Knight Specialty Insurance — Don Hankey of the Hankey Group — expressed his emphatic support for Trump, saying he was “happy to be able to accommodate the ex-president in this situation.”
Hanky said he was “a supporter also” who had been prepared to back Trump on the full judgment New York Justice Arthur Engoron ordered in February. Notably, at the end of Trump’s trial in New York, the judge remarked that the frauds carried out by the former president and his cohorts at the Trump Organization “leap off the page and shock the conscience.”
The CEO described the sum as an attainable “low number” and remarked that the former president put up the bond in cash but he was unclear on whether Trump used bonds as collateral for the final amount. Hankey did not immediately return request for comment to Law&Crime Tuesday.
Last month as Trump searched for backers, he told the court in a sprawling nearly 5,000 page filing that he could not find a private insurer who was willing to take on the staggering total. Now Trump will continue to pursue his appeal. A recent New York Times analysis assessed that Trump has over $350 million cash on hand plus other liquid assets. When Engoron first found Trump liable for civil fraud, he slapped him with a $355 million penalty plus accruing interest making Knight’s decision to back Trump’s order a significant boon.
James’ office did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.
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