


A New York appeals court on Monday gave former president Donald Trump ten more days to post a $175 million bond in his civil-fraud case. If he pays the reduced amount by the deadline, he won’t need to satisfy the original $464 million judgment and will avoid having has assets seized.
Last month, Manhattan supreme court judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his co-defendants, including his two adult sons and former Trump Organization executives, to pay more than $460 million in damages and interest for fraudulently inflating the value of his business assets.
The appellate ruling temporarily prevents New York attorney general Letitia James from seizing the real-estate mogul’s properties to enforce the judgment, which she previously indicated she would do if he didn’t post a bond by Monday. The collection deadline is now delayed to early next month.
The order also allows Trump and his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, to run the family’s New York businesses and obtain loans from New York banks, both of which were previously banned for the next three years under Engoron’s order. The Manhattan judge’s court-ordered monitor and the appointment of a compliance director for Trump’s company is still in effect, though.
While appealing the February decision, Trump has argued that he couldn’t pay the $464 million bond before the Monday deadline. As a result, he asked an appellate court to block enforcement of the civil-fraud judgment.
Trump and the other defendants were found liable for multiple fraud counts, including issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, and conspiracy.
The decision, which was made without a jury, ends a years-long case in which the New York attorney general alleged Trump manipulated his net worth and inflated the value of his properties in order to receive lower interest rates. In the ruling, Engoron wrote that Trump and his co-defendants knowingly “submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements.”