On Monday, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that the $175 million bond posted by Donald Trump in his civil business fraud case will stand despite challenges from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
James argued that that the collateral backing the bond, cash in an account with Charles Schwab financial services, was insufficient, and that the surety, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, didn’t have permission to write bonds in the state.
Fox News: Court rules Trump $175 million bond stands pic.twitter.com/se9KBxVP9d
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According to Fox News, while the bond has been allowed to stand, a number of amendments have been made.
The full amount must now be cash, not mutual funds or securities to ensure that the value does not go up or down. Knight is also not allowed to trade or move the money around, though they will still be in control of the account.
Under the terms of the agreement, Knight will submit a financial report to James’ office every month.
“She doesn’t like the bonding company because she doesn’t know if the collateral is good,” Trump told reporters on Monday, per Yahoo! Finance, claiming James gave him no choice but to use a California-based company. “The bonding company would be good for it because I put up the money. I had plenty of money to put up.”
In her filing on Friday, James described Knight as “a small insurer that is not authorized to write business in New York and thus not regulated by the state’s insurance department, had never before written a surety bond in New York or in the prior two years in any other jurisdiction, and has a total policyholder surplus of just $138 million.”
Lawyers for Trump argued that he has to “put the money somewhere,” and assured James and Engoron that the former president would not be able to withdraw money from the Schwab account without Knight’s approval.
