New York Attorney General Letitia James could swiftly move in on former President Donald Trump’s bank accounts and real estate if Trump doesn’t put up $454 million or get a bond for the civil fraud judgment James won against him.
Trump’s 30-day deadline to post a bond or deposit to block James from collecting while he appeals the verdict arrives on Monday. It’s not looking good for the real estate mogul: Trump’s lawyers said earlier this week that 30 bonding companies have so far turned him down. The Trump legal team is pleading with a New York appeals court to issue an order that would block James from collecting until after his appeal runs out, which could take years.
Jocelyn Nager, a New York lawyer who focuses on debt collection and commercial litigation, told USA TODAY that James can freeze Trump’s bank accounts quickly if she knows where they are by sending a subpoena to the bank or asking a marshal for an immediate levy on the bank.
“It is not instantaneous, but it’s very quick. It’s very fast. It’s a question of how fast that document can be served on the bank,” Nager said.
Judge Arthur Engoron concluded that Trump had profited with better loan and insurance terms from years of fraudulently inflating the value of his assets. The $454 million is the combination of the ill-gotten gains and interest. Engoron imposed about $10 million in separate liability against Trump’s two eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr., and former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg.
The approximately $454 million New York judgment was applied to Trump and certain Trump entities through “joint and several liability,” which means James could go after Trump for the entire amount or pursue the entities for the money. Engoron said that form of liability is warranted when misconduct by the company and a top controlling officer is “indistinguishable.”
Trump claimed on social media this week that he isn’t able to appeal his loss in the case unless he can put up the money.
But that isn’t true, Mitchell Epner, a long-time New York litigator who focuses on commercial and white collar issues, told USA TODAY.
“Mr. Trump is either woefully uninformed or lying. He absolutely can appeal and he already is appealing,” Epner said. “If he doesn’t post the bond, and she collects the money, and he eventually wins the appeal, he gets the money back plus 9% interest,” he said.
That doesn’t mean, however, that there wouldn’t be significant downsides for Trump if he can’t block James from collecting.
“The problem is that the properties might be sold, so he might be able to recover a money judgment for the value of the property, but that’s not what he wants, he doesn’t really want to have the property dismantled,” Stewart Sterk, director of the Center for Real Estate Law & Policy at the Cardozo School of Law, told USA TODAY.
What’s more, seized property that’s sold through a court-ordered auction might go for less than fair market value, and if Trump wanted to buy it back later, he might have to pay the full market price, according to Epner.
“Because whoever’s bought it out of the auction is going to demand full market value,” Epner said.
When it comes to going after real estate, the judgment immediately becomes a lien on the real estate Trump owns in Manhattan because it’s in the same county — New York County — that the judgment came from, Nager said.
“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers,” James told ABC News last month.
For properties outside New York County but within New York state, James would need to take additional actions to get the lien applied there, Nager said. It would also be easier to sell real estate belonging to a Trump corporate entity than real estate that is only under Trump’s name because New York provides added protections for residences.
James could use the judgment to go after Trump’s assets in other states — such as Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club is located — through a process called “domesticating” the judgment in that other state.
That option is very likely available to James, Epner suggested.
“The courts of the other 49 states and the District of Columbia don’t really have discretion about whether or not to allow the New York judgment to be domesticated in that state, because the Constitution has something called the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which requires each state to give full faith and credit to the judgment of the other states,” he said. There are only some “exceedingly narrow” exceptions to that, he said.
Once the New York judgment was turned into a Florida judgment, James would need to follow Florida-specific rules for collecting, just as she has to follow New York’s rules for collecting in New York.
“There’s a lot that you can do here in New York,” Nager said. “It’s not just limited to real estate.”
For instance, if the Trump Organization — which is one of the Trump entities subject to the judgment — owns a property in Manhattan with tenants who pay rent, you can have their rental payments redirected, Nager said.
Funds in New York bank accounts would be the fastest thing to get, followed by property that isn’t real estate, followed by real estate, according to Epner. Real estate is slowest because it has to go through a process that’s equivalent to a foreclosure sale, he said.
“If there are bank accounts in New York, those can be frozen essentially immediately if she already knows where they are, and the turnover of the funds in a bank account would be measured in days or weeks,” Epner said.