Judge orders Trump to pay full bail to appeal $454 million fine | International

Donald Trump easily won the Republican primary in Michigan on Tuesday, but a few hours later, he suffered a serious defeat in his attempt to stop payment of the $355 million fine that a New York judge imposed on him. was inflicted last week for fraud. businesses. With interest, the Republican candidate for the November presidential election already owes $454.2 million, knowing that the fine is increasing at the rate of $112,000 per day. But, according to a provisional order issued today, the former president must provide the entire amount as security, and not the rare hundred million he presented to try to stop the meter, even temporarily.

Since most of his wealth is real estate, his liquidity is limited and the former president is considering selling some of his properties to meet the payment. Or turn to partners and supporters, such as foreign banks and investors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, billionaire friends in the United States, and some unregistered banks in New York, cited as most likely lenders. The good offices of his son-in-law, Jared Kuhsner, in the Gulf petromonarchies – he was the architect of the so-called Abraham Accords – would now be of great help to him if he finally had to go into debt to emerge from the trance legal. His exorbitant legal fees have also reduced his financial capacity.

The ruling by Associate Judge Anil Singh of the New York Appellate Division has not yet been upheld by the state appeals court. Despite the financial blow, Singh agreed to Trump’s request to partially suspend the judge’s ruling banning him from running a business in New York or seeking loans from the state’s banks for three years.

So the million-dollar fine counter for civil fraud – for exaggerating his net worth and the value of his real estate in order to deceive lenders for a decade – is still active, and the Republican has a deadline of 30 days only to satisfy the link. If Trump’s insolvency, or rather his lack of liquidity, were confirmed, the authorities could seize part of his assets, as announced last week by New York Attorney General, Democrat Letitia James, whose team investigated the case. Because it was a civil proceeding, neither Trump nor his sons, who were also convicted, received prison sentences.

Wednesday’s decision will also allow Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, his eldest sons, to continue running the family business, although each will have to post more than four million dollars or obtain a bond for that amount to continue their own remedies.

James’s office says nothing stops Trump from getting a bond from an insurer, even though one of the tycoon’s lawyers argues that the bonds require cash and that’s the biggest handicap. Trump’s 30-day deadline for posting bail began on February 23, so he will have to pay by March 25, just as jury selection begins for another trial in this criminal case for Stormy Daniels Affairthe payment of a bribe to a porn actress to buy her silence about an extramarital affair before the 2016 elections. As in the rest of the current trials, three others in criminal and two in civil cases, including that for fraud commercial, Trump pleaded not guilty.

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