The timing couldn’t be worse for Donald Trump as he faces the prospect of having to sell property to cover a massive verdict against him.
The former president said in a court filing Wednesday he may soon need “to raise capital under exigent circumstances” to push ahead with an appeal of New York state’s $454 million civil fraud verdict against him. A brutal market for many commercial property owners means he faces significant losses in his real estate empire if he unloads assets.
The Trump Organization owns or invests in multiple office towers from New York to San Francisco. One of its key Manhattan properties, 40 Wall St., was purchased by Trump in what his business hails as “one of the great real estate deals of all time” back in 1995. In 2015, it was valued at $540 million, according to commercial mortgage-backed securities data. That has since fallen to $270 million, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates.
(Attorney General Letitia James) has made clear that she’s prepared to seize Trump’s assets if he doesn’t pay the verdict or post an appeals bond on time, mentioning 40 Wall Street explicitly as a potential target in a recent interview
In the appeals court filing, Trump’s attorney said other properties could be used for collateral, including Trump Tower and Trump Park Avenue in Manhattan, his Seven Springs estate outside New York City, and Trump National Golf Club.
In testimony last year, Trump claimed to have more than $400 million in cash. While that’s a hefty sum, it wouldn’t be enough to cover the bonds he’d need to post with the court while appealing the back-to-back verdicts.
finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-warns-big-losses-asset-161514594.html
AC