Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Donald Trump to post a $454-million bond to stay seizure of his properties in the New York fraud case. Trump said he couldn't find a single company to put up a bond that big. Nobody thought of the idea of getting nine companies to put up $50-million bonds and have Trump put up the final $4 million himself. So an appeals court reduced the bond to $175 million and Trump posted it. So who backed the bond?
It has come out that the bond was posted by a company owned by a California billionaire Trump supporter, Don Hankey. Hankey was a former car salesman who came to realize that many sales failed because the buyer had poor credit and was unable to get a loan. He saw dealing with people who were poor credit risks as a golden opportunity and built a huge business loaning money to people who were poor credit risks, charging a huge interest rate, and using their cars as collateral. His company repossesses 250 cars a day due to repayment problems. Hankey likely falls under the dictionary definition of loan shark.
So it appears that Hankey took Trump on as a customer because: (1) He is a Trump supporter and (2) He is used to dealing with people who are poor credit risks. He makes the business work by charging them an arm and a leg and demands that the loan be fully collateralized. The terms of his deal with Trump have not been released, but presumably Trump had to put up a fair amount of collateral and pay an outrageous fee.
However, Trump is not out of the woods. The appellate court could take its time deciding whether the $454 million penalty is appropriate. After the decision, Trump could appeal again to the state Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in New York. The whole process could easily take months and extend past the election, even into a second Trump presidency. If Trump finally lost the case while he was president, he could be ordered to pay up. But what if he refused? The bond would cover $175 million of the fine, but collecting the rest could prove difficult. This is why NY AG Letitia James wanted a bond that covered the whole penalty, but she didn't get her way. (V)