Fox News host Mark Levin has called out billionaires for not paying Donald Trump’s legal bills after the former president’s legal team said paying his $400 million New York civil fraud penalty would be “a practical impossibility.”
Trump is seeking a bond of $464 million to cover his fines and a stay in the execution of the monetary portion of the civil trial ruling after Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Trump must pay $355 million for committing fraud. The New York court held that Trump and top executives at The Trump Organization inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. With interest, the full payment will be roughly $454 million. Trump’s lawyers are appealing the verdict.
On Monday, the Republican suffered a setback after Trump’s legal team admitted in a court filing that it is a “practical impossibility” for him to make the $464 million payment and requested a stay pending the outcome of an appeal process. His team had contacted 33 companies to try to secure funding.
Not just a billionaire but he testified under oath a month or so ago that he had approximately $400 million in cash so covering the whole thing himself should be relatively easy.
Except they want over $500 million in cash counting interest.
So Trump puts up $400 million of his own and gets a bond for the remaining $100 million & change. It doesn’t ALL have to come from a bond.
The 400m dollar amount is based on an audit conducted in 2021, where it listed him having around 298m. The total of 400 was an estimate based on his income and liabilities since that time.
I for one highly doubt that he has 400m in liquidity. Not because he’s incapable of raising that much wealth, but because it’s an incredibly dumb move to keep 400m in cash. There’s no financial benefit like meaningful interests rates, and it doesn’t offer any tax benefits.
Even if he has kept it in partial liquidity like a money market account or Treasury bills, the amount and the timelines may not allow for him to access the totality of his funds in time.
T-bills are highly liquid.
Better yet, if he kept it in the SP500 then it would be liquid and a better investment than whatever Trump Org is doing.
Depending on what maturity rate you choose. I think the shortest is little over a month?
Not super liquid if you are considering taxes.
Liquid means something can be sold quickly for its market value. In other words there are lots and lots of potential buyers bidding for it, so low-balling won’t work, so you will get a fair price. Whereas an illiquid investment, like real estate, has few potential buyers. If you are in a hurry to sell real estate, buyers can lowball you.
Liquidity has nothing to do with whether it is wise to sell right now.
T-bills are constantly bought and sold on the secondary market before maturity, the maturity value is built into the market price. If your T-bill matured in 10 years you could sell it tomorrow if you wanted, and you would get a fair price.
You can find quotes here. Want a T-bill that matures on Mar 31? You can easily buy it. Or sell it.
Taxes depend on if your investment was profitable, not liquidity. Something can be illiquid but subject to no taxes (if you lost money on it) or very liquid but subject to high taxes (if you made a lot of money).
Of course, it’s possible that selling an investment today wouldn’t synergize with your particular tax avoidance strategy. But that’s not a liquidity problem, that’s a you problem.
You’re right, that guy doesn’t know much about liquidity. Trump could have parked his money in T-Bills and made 4.8% annually on them, risk free. And no state taxes.
Sounds like a smart thing to do if you’re going to pay a fat judgement. Trump is bad at planning and shouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt. He just didn’t plan on losing at all.