A Monday filing from former President Donald Trump's legal team revealed the full list of entities that denied requests to cover his sizable civil fraud trial bond.
New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump in 2022, accusing him—as well as his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and other officials with the Trump Organization—of a years-long scheme in which he inflated his net worth and the value of his assets in order to obtain more favorable business loans.
Despite Trump's claims of innocence, Judge Arthur Engoron found him liable for fraud last fall. Trump was ordered to pay a penalty of $355 million, which, with interest, came to a total of over $454 million. In order to appeal the decision, as he has stated his intention to do, Trump will be required to post an appeal bond of $464 million.
In a filing submitted to a mid-level New York appeals court on Monday, Trump's legal team admitted that he had been unable to secure the backing for the bond after asking numerous entities. The filing explained that, for an amount as high as $464 million, real estate, Trump's key asset type, could not be put forward as collateral.
In a footnote, the filing laid out a list of "some of" the sureties that had been contacted about the bond by Trump's brokers, but which ultimately declined to back it. The list was as follows: Applied Underwriters (SiriusPoint), Allianz, Amynta, Arch, Argo, Ascot, AXA XL, Berkley, Berkshire Hathaway, CAP Specialty, Chubb, Cincinnati, CNA Surety, DUAL/Axis, Everest Re, Frankenmuth, Hartford, Hudson, IAT (Harco), Intact, Liberty, Munich Re, Philadelphia Indemnity, MainStreet (NGM), Markel, Nationwide, RLI, Skyward (Great Midwest), Sompo, Swiss Re, Tokyo Marine HCC, Travelers, and Zurich.
Chubb was notably the surety that recently backed a $91.6 million bond for Trump to allow him to appeal another civil fraud verdict against him in the defamation suit from E. Jean Carroll.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email on Monday for comment on the filing.
The filing described the process of obtaining the $464 million bond as a "practical impossibility" and asked the court to allow him to issue a stay on the financial portion of the ruling and allow him to pursue an appeal with only a $100 million bond, as he has floated in the past. The filing also requested permission to bring the argument before the state's highest appeals court, should the current one deny the request.
"Despite scouring the market," the filing read, "we have been unsuccessful in our effort to obtain a bond for the Judgment Amount for Defendants for the simple reason that obtaining an appeal bond for $464 million is a practical impossibility under the circumstances presented."
Reporting from the outlet Just Security found that Trump's current liquidity is believed to be lower than the civil fraud penalty against him. If the appeals court does not intervene on his behalf, the penalty will become collectible a week from Monday.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
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