Trump's company faces asset seizure as £370m penalty guarantee fails

Donald Trump was unable to secure a financial guarantee of roughly £370 million, required by a court in New York to halt the execution of a verdict convicting his company of fraud - the former president's lawyers announced on Monday.

The case in question concerns a financial penalty of roughly £370 million, imposed on Trump's company by a court in New York in February of this year. The penalty was the result of the company's actions over several years involving inflating the value of the Trump Organization's assets. The purpose of these actions was to obtain loans and credits from various financial institutions.

Donald Trump filed a request to halt the execution of the penalty until the appeal is considered. However, for such a request to be considered, the former president must secure a financial guarantee for the full penalty amount by next week.

Trump's representatives informed on Monday that securing such a guarantee turned out to be "practically impossible". This situation was due to the refusal of all insurance companies they approached for a guarantee. According to Trump's lawyers, the companies - and there were as many as 30 - did not want to accept real estate as collateral, demanding cash instead.

"While, according to my understanding, Trump Organization has a strong financial liquidity position, it does not have a billion dollars in cash or equivalent" - the statement said. Trump's lawyers assessed the imposed penalty and bail as "grossly disproportionate" and asked for permission to post a smaller guarantee.

If the court does not agree to this request or extend the deadline, Trump will be obligated to pay the penalty from March 25. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she is ready to begin confiscating his assets, if the former president will not have the cash.

£370 million is the penalty ordered by the court in February in a civil lawsuit against Trump's company for chronically inflating its assets' value by billions of dollars. In addition, the presiding judge Arthur Engoron also prohibited Trump from holding any director position in any New York business for three years. The former president considers the penalty unjust and believes that as a result of his actions, no one was harmed, and the experts, who appraised the true value of his property, actually undervalued it.

In March, Trump was able to post bail of roughly £73 million in another case concerning defamation of publicist E. Jean Carroll. In this case, Trump is appealing the court's verdict, which ruled that the former president had defamed the journalist by denying he committed sexual assault against her.