Donald Trump has one week to pay the sum of 464 million dollars. If he is not able to guarantee the full amount, he will not be able to appeal during the civil trial underway in New York during which he was found guilty of financial fraud last February. And if a solution is not found by the end of the month, the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election could see his real estate confiscated. Lawyers for the Tycoon, or rather the old Tycoon, asked the Court to extend the deadline and reduce the requested bail to $100 million. There would also be another solution: Trump could turn to a surety company that will guarantee him, but of the 30 specialized companies consulted by financial brokers, none is willing to take charge of the guarantee. They all require liquidity and rarely accept real estate assets as collateral. And in cash the former president has obvious problems. The trials, particularly civil trials, would have dealt a hard blow to its coffers. Last week, he finalized his $91.6 million settlement in his lost defamation lawsuit against writer E. Jean Carroll by promising an investment account at Charles Schwab to insurance giant Chubb. Even the pool of lawyers in the former US president's court, called upon to resolve civil and criminal disputes, reduced his assets. And although Trump often brags about his wealth, much of his net worth comes from real estate values.
The Mar-a-Lago Mess
In February this year, Trump was ordered to pay 355 million in ill-gotten gains in a civil trial for inflating the assets of the family holding company – more than 3.6 billion per year for 10 years – in order to obtain more advantageous conditions from banks. and insurance companies. He was also banned for three years from running a business in the state, one more than his two co-defendant sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who will each face a $4 million fine. The former US president appealed Judge Arthur Ergoron's decision and now has until March 25 to deposit the more than $450 million, failing which Manhattan District Attorney Letitia James may order the seizure of his assets.
The Mar-a-Lago villa is also included in the overvaluation of real estate to modify the financial statements. The prosecutor accused the Trump Organization of inflating the value of the property, valuing it as a private residence rather than a club (for wealthy clients), despite judges saying there are restrictions on its use as housing. The defense documents detail how the Supreme Court set the value of the Palm Beach resort “between $18 million and $27.6 million,” accusing Trump of “an overvaluation of at least 2,300 percent over that value.” of the expert” of Mar-a-Lago County. . According to the ex-president's lawyers, “the Palm Beach County assessor's office confirmed that the specialist's valuation “does not reflect market value.” But it appears that there is no never had a precise and definitive assessment of the value of the property, which over the years became Trump's main residence.
Trump bought it in 1985 for around $10 million
Tycoon himself has repeatedly pointed out that the complex would be worth around $1 billion. A figure – if you like – 4 times higher than that of Villa Certosa, the good retirement by Silvio Berlusconi whose economic value has been contested by many. However, abroad, according to what is reported Ap, the same Palm Beach real estate agents who specialize in high-end properties agree that the financial analysis reviewed by the Court does not reflect the value of the residence. Trump's “happy island” covers 6,000 square meters of land, with more than 120 rooms, in which, according to judges, he archived documents classified as Top secret, a private beach, ballrooms, golf courses, swimming pools, bomb shelters. It was built in 1927 by grain heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who, upon her death, gifted it to the federal government as a winter home for U.S. presidents (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter did not have not used). In 1981, the government sold it to the previous owner's foundation, and four years later it was purchased by Trump for about $10 million. On this last point, the former president's lawyers used their leverage to attack the Court's decision, namely the historical importance of Mar-a-Lago: “The Supreme Court did not even consider that it This was a distinct property for its history, architecture, finishes, features, as well as its prime and unique location in Palm Beach.
From residence to private club (and vice versa)
In the 1990s, the developer – unable to keep up with high maintenance costs – proposed to Palm Beach officials that they subdivide the property to build apartment buildings. Construction plan rejected, until 1993 when he was granted the project to transform the villa into a private club, thus giving him cash flow to use for maintenance. For Mar-a-Lago County, the tax value of the resort was determined based on its annual net income as a club (500 members, $500,000 dues) and not based on its value as a home . “Private clubs are so rarely sold or built, that it is impossible to define their tax rates by comparing them to similar properties,” said a tax office spokesperson. The fact is that Trump's estimated figure, according to the attorney general, would not take into account restrictions on acts related to its use exclusively as a club and not as a private residence. For the former president's lawyers, the documents read, there are “no prohibitions on the use and evaluation of Mar-A-Lago as a private residence nor on the fact that its use as a club increases its value”.
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