General Discussion

Trump claims to be a multi-billionaire. He claims he has significant cash on hand (Habba Babba said 500M). When you and I say we have cash, we usually mean folding money or a bank account. When wealthy people say cash they don't mean that they have money stashed under the mattress. What they really mean is that they have liquid assets. That means they have unencumbered funds parked in some sort of interest bearing situation that they can access and move around on very short notice. They don't have to sell or mortgage a property (or their private jet) to free up assets.

To satisfy the court, Trump in some way had to pledge $91M before he could make an appeal. That money has to be unencumbered, so that if the appeal fails, the court can disburse the full amount to the E. Jean Carrol immediately. Trump did not put up his own money. Instead, he got Federal Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Chubb Group LLC, to provide the court with a $91M bond. In this situation, the bond is like a loan. I have no reason to believe that F.I.C. would put up the money on more favorable terms than Honest Abe's House of Bonds. That means a 20% fee up front to obtain the bond. In this case that's about $18M. If you have liquid cash somewhere, why would you get a bond? Unless you are a loan shark, your cash is going to be earning significantly less than 20%. So you sacrifice your earned interest and use your own money. That's just simple math. Trump used a bond which must mean he doesn't have the cash.

The big question I have is, why would any legitimate company put up any size bond for Trump? What could induce a loan officer or loan committee to cover Trump?

Before Honest Abe or F.I.C. is going to put up a bond, they are going to want collateral to cover their money. Trump would have had to pledge a property with a least $91M in equity. They would also have to look at his financial statements. Oops! We already know he has been adjucated a fraudster. You can't believe anything Trump tells you. How would you really know if his collateral had $91M in equity? It is difficult for me to see how F.I.C. could do their necessary due diligence in such a short time to assure themselves that their bond is covered.

If Trump's appeal fails, he must pay Carroll immeadeately. If he refuses or can't pay, then the court orders F.I.C. to transfer the funds to Carroll. Now Trump has to pay F.I.C. or they sieze the collateral. They sell off the collateral. This is where the rubber meets the road. If the property is already encumbered by previous loans or pledges (which surely have numerous attached covenants), those encumberence holders have first call on the proceeds. After all of those debts are covered, then F.I.C. gets it's money. There is no guarantee that there will be $91M left. Also, this will surely spawn numerous law suits. F.I.C. could find itself fighting with numerous other debt holders.

Now add to all that the fact that Trump owes roughly $500M on his fraud judgement. There is no way he has that kind of cash available. If he wants to appeal, there will have to be another bond. If F.I.C. or any other organization puts up a bond, you can definitely assume something is rotten in Denmark. As soon as the judgement grace period ends and trump can't pay, James is going to attach everthing Trump owns in New York. No matter what, the Carroll appeal will still be going on when James starts grabbing assets. Now it's a fire sale. Trump's carroll collateral could seriously crash iin value. Law suits are going to fall like rain. F.I.C. has people way smarter than me in financial matters. They would have had to take all of this into consideration. F.I.C. stands a good chance of getting burned.

Which brings me back to my original question, why would any "legitimate" company working under normal banking practices put up the bond? Me thinks something really is rotten in Denmark or Gotham.