Trump had until midnight on Monday to submit details on that so called “bond” he secured from Knight Specialty Insurance Company. This is the supposed $175 million bond that Knight says Trump will pay, and Knight isn’t certified as a bond insurer in NY state, and Knight doesn’t have the cash to cover the bond...etc, etc, etc. Turns out that Knight has “access” to another Trump Schwab account that has exactly the amount of money needed for the bond. However, the usual procedure is that the person receiving the bond has to pay a fee to the bonding company, so why didn’t Trump just pay NY state the the $175 million outright? And Knight still insists that it has collateral of at least $1 billion, but it still only has cash reserves of $138 million, which Letitia James says is insufficient funding to cover the bond under NY state law.
The documents reveal that the former president was forced to sign away rights to his account at the investment bank Charles Schwab–in which he claims to have more than $175 million–just to keep the New York Attorney General from snatching his properties in recent weeks after a judge ruled that Trump committed bank fraud.
“The $175 million bond is collateralized by $175,304,075.95 in cash held in a Charles Schwab account pledged to KSIC, and KSIC has the right to exercise control over that account,” the company and Trump’s lawyers said in a joint memorandum.
Now, the Daily Beast article reads that Knight has a “first priority lien” on the Schwab account. However, Andrew Weissmann disputes this:
Reacting to the bond court filings, Weissmann posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Something's fishy here. If Trump has $175M free and clear, why not just directly post it and not pay a fee for a surety bond? And the agreement does not give Knight a lien on the account as collateral and seems to afford Trump a two-day window to dissipate the account."
Seeing as I am no financial expert, I will leave that issue to anyone on Daily Kos who can explain this to me. But I think that “two day window to dissipate the account” screams that this is another con by Trump. The court date for hearing about this so called bond is next Monday.