Here's Why This California Billionaire Helped Trump Secure $175 Million Bond – Forbes
A company backed by the California tycoon who made his fortune on high-interest car loans comes to Trump’s rescue.
Donald Trump attends the wake for slain NYPD Officer 31yr old Jonathan Diller on Long Island, on March 28. (Photo by Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond on Monday in his New York State civil trial. The news comes just one week after an appeals court ruled that the former president would not have to immediately post a bond for more than $454 million in the civil fraud case against him and his company. According to the ruling, Trump could delay payment of the full bond while he appeals the ruling as long as he posted a $175 million bond within 10 days.
The bond was provided by California-based company Knight Specialty Insurance Company. Trump’s collateral to secure the loans was a combination of cash and investment-grade bonds, according to Don Hankey, the chairman of Knight Insurance.
Hankey told Forbes that his company had initiated the deal, reaching out to Trump just a few days before an appeals court lowered the amount Trump would have to pay while his appeal was heard. “This is what we do at Knight insurance,” said Hankey, who confirmed he had supported Trump’s political campaigns in the past. “I’d never met Donald Trump. I’d never talked to him on the phone. I heard that he needed a loan or a bond, and this is what we do. So, we reached out, and he responded.” The deal, Hankey said, came together in just a few days.
Hankey, a billionaire who presides over an auto-services empire, may never have met Trump, but he was the largest individual owner of Axos Financial, the lender that bailed out Trump by refinancing his mortgages at Trump Tower and his Miami resort in 2022. Axos also previously had done business with the family of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The fact that Trump has come up with the money means that he’ll be able to protect his assets from New York’s attorney general Letitia James, who had warned that she would start seizing properties as early as late March.
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron had ruled that Trump had fraudulently misstated the value of his and his company’s assets on financial statements and ordered him to pay $354.9 million as part of the civil fraud case plus a nine percent interest rate that Engoron ruled started accruing on the fines in March 2019.
Dan Alexander and Kyle Mullins contributed reporting