Donald Trump posts $175 million bond to avoid foreclosure after conviction for financial fraud

He had until Thursday to comply. Former American President Donald Trump filed a guarantee of $175 million (approximately 161 million euros) with the American courts on Monday, April 1, thus avoiding the humiliating prospect of legal seizures of his real estate assets. This bail was requested after his conviction to pay $454 million in fines for financial fraud in February, against which he appealed.

Guaranteed to be the Republican Party’s candidate for the presidential election in November, the billionaire was convicted with his sons Eric and Don Jr. for having inflated the assets of the Trump Organization’s real estate empire to the tune of several billion dollars, like the Trump Tower or the 40 Wall Street building in New York. This manipulation throughout the 2010s was aimed at being granted more favorable loans from banks.

Soon a first criminal trial

Donald Trump must now be tried from April 15, on criminal charges this time, in a case of hidden payments to cover up embarrassing affairs in 2016. This will notably involve spending $130,000 to buy the silence of a former porn star about an alleged relationship that Donald Trump denies. This criminal trial will constitute a historic first for a former president. If convicted, he could theoretically face prison time, an unprecedented scenario for a White House candidate.

The former president must also be tried in two cases, in Georgia and in federal court in Washington, for his alleged illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and in another case of handling classified documents upon his departure from the White House in 2021. But the holding of trials in these three cases before the presidential election is uncertain, after several postponements due to appeals filed by Donald Trump’s lawyers.