Fox News hostĀ Mark LevinĀ has called out billionaires for not payingĀ Donald Trumpās legal bills after the former presidentās legal team said paying his $400 millionĀ New York civil fraud penaltyĀ would be āa practical impossibility.ā
Trump is seeking a bond of $464 million to cover his fines and a stay in the execution of the monetary portion of the civil trial ruling after JudgeĀ Arthur EngoronĀ ruled in February that Trump must pay $355 million for committing fraud. The New York court held that Trump and top executives at The Trump Organization inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. With interest, the full payment will be roughly $454 million. Trumpās lawyers are appealing the verdict.
On Monday, theĀ RepublicanĀ suffered a setback after Trumpās legal team admitted in a court filing that it is aĀ āpractical impossibilityāĀ for him to make the $464 million payment and requested a stay pending the outcome of an appeal process. His team had contactedĀ 33 companies to try to secure funding.
The 400m dollar amount is based on an audit conducted in 2021, where it listed him having around 298m. The total of 400 was an estimate based on his income and liabilities since that time.
I for one highly doubt that he has 400m in liquidity. Not because heās incapable of raising that much wealth, but because itās an incredibly dumb move to keep 400m in cash. Thereās no financial benefit like meaningful interests rates, and it doesnāt offer any tax benefits.
Even if he has kept it in partial liquidity like a money market account or Treasury bills, the amount and the timelines may not allow for him to access the totality of his funds in time.
T-bills are highly liquid.
Better yet, if he kept it in the SP500 then it would be liquid and a better investment than whatever Trump Org is doing.
Depending on what maturity rate you choose. I think the shortest is little over a month?
Not super liquid if you are considering taxes.
Liquid means something can be sold quickly for its market value. In other words there are lots and lots of potential buyers bidding for it, so low-balling wonāt work, so you will get a fair price. Whereas an illiquid investment, like real estate, has few potential buyers. If you are in a hurry to sell real estate, buyers can lowball you.
Liquidity has nothing to do with whether it is wise to sell right now.
T-bills are constantly bought and sold on the secondary market before maturity, the maturity value is built into the market price. If your T-bill matured in 10 years you could sell it tomorrow if you wanted, and you would get a fair price.
You can find quotes here. Want a T-bill that matures on Mar 31? You can easily buy it. Or sell it.
Taxes depend on if your investment was profitable, not liquidity. Something can be illiquid but subject to no taxes (if you lost money on it) or very liquid but subject to high taxes (if you made a lot of money).
Of course, itās possible that selling an investment today wouldnāt synergize with your particular tax avoidance strategy. But thatās not a liquidity problem, thatās a you problem.
Youāre right, that guy doesnāt know much about liquidity. Trump could have parked his money in T-Bills and made 4.8% annually on them, risk free. And no state taxes.
Sounds like a smart thing to do if youāre going to pay a fat judgement. Trump is bad at planning and shouldnāt get the benefit of the doubt. He just didnāt plan on losing at all.