Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/26/trump-files-appeal-of-fraud-judgment-but-fails-to-post-bond.html
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He also owes 400+ million to Deutschebank with some personally guaranteed loans that are coming due this year among other things.
So for the record,
Donald “Adjudicated rapist, serial liar, treasonweasel” Trump is over a billion dollars in debt.
He DOES NOT PAY if he can avoid it and his only real skill is losing money.
Maybe he can get Jared to pay it with all the Saudi money he is holding for selling nuclear secrets? (Lol)
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Well…that answers one question. He doesn’t have access to that kind of money.
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<— That is my surprised face.
<— Remarkably similar to my unsurprised face.
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He was probably hoping to be able to cash out some of the shares in the SPAC as soon as he’s allowed. One article valued his holding at $4B(!).
But it looks like he wouldn’t be allowed.
" Donald Trump can’t use the hefty cash windfall he’s expected to get from a merger of his Truth Social platform with a tech company to pay his massive legal costs.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, New York Times investigative reporter Russ Buettner explained that the former president can’t simply dip into the merger deal funds for his own personal use — and that what Trump will ultimately get out of the deal may not be spendable cash anyway.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Trump’s media and technology company merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) named Digital World Acquisition.
The Washington Post explained last week, “The approval is a victory for Trump, who will hold more than 78 million shares in the post-merger company, a filing shows — a stake that, at current prices, would be worth nearly $4 billion. Trump, who would own between 58 and 69 percent of the company, and other investors could earn tens of millions more shares through a provision, known as an ‘earnout,’ tied to the stock’s performance, a filing said.”
Buettner confessed to MSNBC that he’s not up on the details of the merger. However, “I don’t think that there’s cash there that he could readily access from what we have heard recently,” he said."
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I don’t get how this works. I thought that posting the bond was a prerequisite to appealing the ruling and that you didn’t get to appeal it without doing so. Is the bond just to stay enforcement while you appeal?
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The cynical part of me is curious how much of Digital World Acquisition is owned by Russia or Russian firms and how much by Saudi Arabia or Saudi firms.
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That and I don’t understand why any company would purchase Truth Social, much less giving the former owner a majority stake in their own company as part of the purchase.
I have to think that the valuation of this company is very shaky if they are saying 58-70% of their value is worth Great Value Twitter.
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Sooo much shadiness going down. SUPER Sketch.
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If I understand correctly, the NY AG would be using the proceeds from those seized assets to cover trump’s fines. trump would still owe money on the loans, but would have have lost the assets that back them, so it’s academic whether the assets would prove to have the values that trump claimed they did, but it would prove conclusively that they don’t (or, it’s theoretically possible that they do…but they don’t).
If Uncle Vlad hasn’t gotten tired of propping up trump, he can order an oligarch to extend trump more credit via Deutsche Bank.
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TFG is getting cornered, he’s getting less room to maneuver legally, financially, socially, etc. As he becomes more and more concerned obsessed with making it all the way to the White House for a second term, where he hopes to pardon himself, his enablers, et al., he is likely to say and do more extreme things. We’re seeing as much at CPAC. I expect to see more.
The spotlights really oughta pivot and shine their bright light on the financiers who are betting big on a second TFG presidency. The bankrollers, the platformers, the J6 crowd all need to be identified and exposed all day, every day, from yesterday until November. Follow every tie, and every enabler–
–every one of these financial enablers of major consequence: 
Let there be light.
ETA:
three days after posting, having had my first coffee in a week, my brain finally gave me the right verb
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It’s been a really dark time in the US since he eked out his win in 2016, and the damage is done to our civilization, it won’t heal easily.
BUT, I look at this and remember the march of history is long, he was always gambling with other people’s money, and now he’s stuck paying up-- reality has its own agenda-- he can’t milk his cult members fast enough to pay it all. His entire presidential “career” was a gamble, and while you can fool some people indefinitely you can’t fool everyone, particularly when you get to court.
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“You know, it occurs to me that the best way to hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.”
- Billy Ray Valentine
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I am VERY surprised at how quickly he appealed this. Even without the Bond.
His normal M.O. is to wait until the last moment to Appeal to drag things out as long as possible. This is literally the first day after the written judgement was posted.
Of note is that he STILL has not Appealed the $83m CARROLL 2 judgement. Deadline for that is about 10 days away now.
My only guess is that in 30 days when NY State starts seizing his assets he will cry “BUT I APPEALED! YOU CAN’T DO THIS! SOMEONE STOP THEM!”
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OH no, will al the costumes look gold plated?
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and unless something magic occurs, in 30 days, the New York AG will begin seizing assets.
Are there a couple of lectures in law course (“LAW 273”) on ‘magic’ in the law?
Something like this, only with citations instead of the maths?:
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I expect that when his assets go up for sale, Jared Kushner will be trying to buy them. He’s sitting on a bunch of Saudi money in his fund, after all, as well as the personal funds they accumulated while WH advisors.
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Doesn’t he also still owe the Bank of China something like 260 million?
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