Donald Trump’s media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, obtained the green light for its IPO in New York on Friday, which will unlock billions of dollars for the former US president, who must provide legal bail on Monday of nearly 500 million.
The Republican candidate for the November presidential election is under pressure from a seizure of his real estate assets if he does not provide the New York State justice system on March 25 with a guarantee that he will pay nearly half -billion dollars in fines to which he was sentenced in civil court in February.
This windfall could come from his company TMTG, which will merge with a vehicle listed on the stock exchange, after a favorable vote on Friday at a general meeting.
This entry into the market should offer a breath of fresh air to the 77-year-old businessman and political tribune, in a precarious financial situation.
The real estate developer has been saying for weeks that it has been unable to raise a guarantee on nearly $500 million needed to suspend, for the duration of an appeal, a resounding judgment handed down in February by a Manhattan civil court.
Lies
At the end of this trial and prosecutions initiated since October 2022, Donald Trump and his adult sons Eric and Donald Jr. were sentenced on February 16 to a total of $464 million in fines and interest for having lied in the 2010s on the value of the assets of their real estate empire Trump Organization, in particular to obtain bank loans.
TMTG will merge with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a listed vehicle, also called SPAC, whose sole purpose is to allow a company to access the Stock Exchange more easily than through the traditional route of a formal IPO. due form.
Donald Trump is the main shareholder of TMTG who will control several tens of millions of shares in the new listed company. According to several estimates, his stake would be valued at more than three billion dollars at the current share price.
The TMTG-DWAC agreement provides for a lock-in period (lock-up) of six months during which existing shareholders cannot sell their shares. However, nothing prevents Donald Trump from offering his securities as collateral to the courts or from obtaining a loan based on the value of these shares.
Before this vote, the former President of the United States attacked New York justice at dawn, before Monday’s deadline.
“No trial, no jury, no crime, no victim. Just a villainous judge and an attorney general who hates Trump and takes his orders from the White House,” attacked in capital letters on his Truth Social network, in allusion to Judge Arthur Engoron and the chief magistrate of the State of New York Letitia James who prosecuted and convicted him in February for financial fraud.
“500 million for my campaign”
Donald Trump also claimed that he currently had nearly $500 million in cash, a significant portion of which is intended to be used in (his) presidential campaign against Democratic President Joe Biden.
Until now, the one who prides himself on being a billionaire claimed to have “more than 400 million dollars in liquidity”.
So what will happen on Monday if he does not provide legal bail?
“A humiliation and serious financial consequences” and a “huge problem,” Carl Tobias, professor of law at the University of Richmond, and a former prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, told AFP on Thursday.
Mr. Trump regularly storms against a “phony” judgment and an unconstitutional financial “guarantee requirement” imposed by a “racist and corrupt” attorney general and a judge “controlled by the Democratic clique.”
Ms. James is an African-American magistrate, elected from the Democratic Party and occupies a political function and role at the top of New York justice.
For Mr. Tobias, if Donald Trump exhausts all his recourses, he “could sell his real estate or […] try to get a bank loan or even declare personal bankruptcy.”
The attorney general can also “try to seize the money he holds in New York and some of his real estate,” such as the Trump Tower on 5e avenue and a Wall Street tower.
Thursday, the tabloid New York Post thought Mr. Trump would “let” Ms. James seize Trump Tower or her golf course in upscale Westchester County.