Chubb ended Trump fraud bond talks after backing E. Jean Carroll appeal bond, court filing says
Chubb ended Trump fraud bond talks after backing E. Jean Carroll appeal bond, court filing says
Lawyers for Donald Trump contacted Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Chubb and many others seeking an appeal bond for Trump's $454 million fraud judgment.
KEY POINTS
- Donald Trump and his co-defendants were in talks with insurance giant Chubb for a $464 million appeal bond, but the company backed out, a Trump Organization lawyer said.
- Chubb previously provided Trump’s $91.6 million appeal bond in writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil defamation case.
- In his New York civil business fraud case, Trump’s lawyers said they reached out unsuccessfully to more than 30 companies to secure a bond.
- Those companies include Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Liberty Mutual, Allianz, Chubb and Travelers, among others.
I'm going to assume they had somebody go out to the properties he tried to put up as collateral for the bonds and they assessed a much lower value than what trump is insisting it's worth. In short his properties aren't worth enough to cover it.
I'm assuming they also required financials for these properties that show any mortgages or liens that are already attached to them. There is no way they would accept collateral that already has liabilities against them because they would not be able to seize them outright, and if a sale was forced that caused the property to sell for way below market value they might not recoup their funds. I see no way that any major financial institution is going to risk a half a billion dollars on Trump's behalf without a 100% guaranteed return on investment.
That too.
Also, “it’s just business”… seems kind of reasonable now.
Though I wouldn’t want trumps left over properties. You’ll never get the greasy shit stains out. Or the smell.
Edit: it occurs to me that one strategy rich fucks use for “earning” a living and avoiding cap gains taxes is taking loans using their assets as collateral- with real estate, taking extra mortgages out and using their rent income to pay interest.
So chances are solid most of, if not all of his properties are leveraged.
I think it is also very unusual to provide a bond over 100 million, and I assume that they want liquid assets beyond that amount.
The most basic question for any insurer is : am I going to get my money back ?
It seems to me it would very difficult to imagine any possible scenario in which you get half a billion out of Trump on good day
. Trying to get it from Trump as President? Fuhgedaboudit
Getting the money back from him is easy if you write the correct terms into the contracts. I think they are scared that Trump will try to get "revenge" against them for taking their money back should he lose his appeal.
Not really easy if he does not have the actual money. Which, it seems, he does not.
There's another key point in the article: the reason why those other companies didn't bite is that they would not entertain taking real estate as collateral. Chubb was the only company willing to even try and negotiate that, and Trump couldn't come up with a satisfactory package for them.
Since we already know that Trump overvalued his properties for loan purposes, it is very possible that an objective analysis of their worth vs. their outstanding debt led to the conclusion that they are mostly underwater.
Chubb was the only company willing to even try and negotiate that, and Trump couldn’t come up with a satisfactory package for them.
I'm seeing possibly subtext here that Chubb intentionally screwed Trump which was a surprise.
So Team Trump were talking with Chubb for bonds against both the $91 million judgment as well as the $464 million judgment. Team Trump was offering up both liquid assets (the Schwab brokerage account with whatever stocks and bonds are in there) and real estate. Team Trump really wanted bonds against the real estate.
It looks like Chubb said something like "Hmm, well we have two bonds we're talking about here. Lets do the $91 million bond in purely liquid, and then we can look at the real estate for the $464 million bond. Seeing how you need the $91 million bond in a couple of days lets get that knocked out first". Team Trump agreed handing over all the liquid assets (the Schwab account) so the $91 million bond is now "fully collateralize" meaning liquid money to back up the bond.
Then Team Trump says "Okay the $91 million bond worked great! Now lets do the $464 million bond backed by Trump real estate!"
Chubb says "Hard pass, not interested."
So all the good stuff is gone and Trump has nothing good left to try to secure any bond on the $464 million. Chubb makes whatever commission they placed on top of the $91m bond, and simply pays out the $91m to Jean Carrol when the appeal fails. Jean Carrol wins, Chubb wins, Trump gets played.
I say all of this with zero love for Chubb, but when a grifter gets grifted, its satisfying to watch.
I was so thirsty but now I have many of the Greatest Tears to drink from. This is the Best Thing to happen. Only the Best.
Terrible headline by CNBC. It reverses the meaning.
After backing OUT OF E. Jean Carroll appeal bond.
If they backed it, that would mean they gave Trump the money.