Trump a little short on cash

New York – Donald Trump faced having assets seized in a humiliating blow to his carefully cultivated image as a self-made tycoon as his lawyers acknowledged on Monday he doesn’t have the cash to appeal a $464 million (about R8.8 billion) fine for fraudulently inflating his wealth.

Trump – the Republican candidate for November’s US presidential election – intends to challenge the judgment imposed by a New York civil court in February, which would force an automatic stay of enforcement.

But first he must put the money into an account managed by the appeals court or post a bond in the full amount, and 30 insurance underwriters have rejected his pleas for assistance, his lawyers said in a new filing.

“We will fight and defeat this Hoax,” Trump said in a vituperative statement, blasting the case as a “witch hunt” against him.

His cash crunch raises the possibility that the state of New York could begin seizing the former president’s property as soon as next Monday unless the court – known as the First Department of the Appellate Division – agrees to a delay.

“Defendants have faced what have proven to be insurmountable difficulties in obtaining an appeal bond for the full $464 million,” Trump Organisation general counsel Alan Garten said in a filing to the court.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favourable bank loans or insurance terms.

Last month, the judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest while his sons Eric and Don Jnr were told to pay more than $4 million each. –