The New York attorney general’s office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Donald Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs.
State lawyers entered the judgments with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, just one week after Judge Arthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.
Entering a judgment would be the first step a creditor would take to attempt to recover property. Additional steps, such as putting liens on assets or moving to foreclose on properties, or taking other actions in court would follow, if the asset is going to be seized.
The judgment is already entered in New York city where Trump’s properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings are located.
Judgments have not been entered in Florida counties including Miami or Palm Beach where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property and the Trump National Doral Golf Club and resort are located or Cook County, Illinois, where Trump’s hotel in Chicago is located, according to a review of records Thursday by CNN
ABC News wrote:New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken an initial step toward laying the groundwork for a possible seizure of former President Donald Trump's assets in New York's Westchester County as part of the $464 million judgment in Trump's civil fraud trial.
State officials have entered the judgment from Trump's civil fraud trial in Manhattan with the county clerk's office in Westchester, which would allow James to move to take possession of Trump National Golf Course in Briarcliff Manor and Seven Springs, a private estate in Bedford, if Trump fails to secure a bond. ...
Judge Engoron has issued an order significantly expanding the powers of the court-appointed monitor over the Trump businesses. The order takes effect TODAY, March 21.
Michael Popok reads item F, which he says is his favorite part of the order. Starting the video where he describes F...
ETA: I don't think this is going to work out well for Trump. Do you suppose he has made any misrepresentations in recent filings with the court?
Donald Trump has sent out a panicked fundraising message to his supporters as he begs them to help foot his ballooning legal bills.
The desperate memo, titled “Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower!”, comes as the Monday deadline to pay his $464m bond in his New York fraud trial judgement ticks ever closer.
“KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF TRUMP TOWER!” the text reads, linking to an accompanying memo that states: “Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia James wants to SEIZE my properties in New York. THIS INCLUDES THE ICONIC TRUMP TOWER!”
It continues: “Democrats think this will intimidate me. They think that if they take my cash to stifle my campaign, that I’ll give up! Here’s one thing they don’t know: WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”
The frantic tone of the plea stands in stark contrast to the statement issued by Trump spokesman Steven Cheung to CNN on Wednesday in which he dismissed the network’s reporting that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in “panic mode” over the matter as “pure bulls*** and fake news”.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
No, its more that he wants it to be iconic to everyone else. And he is hoping appealing to that will unleash a few people to part with a couple of hundred dollars.
I didn't listen to the whole video above, but I did read somewhere that the monitor will be able to look at all his bank statements. That's gotta be interesting!
Yeah they're gonna hate having a monitor babysitting them. I don't follow them so IDK what Jr and Eric have said about this. I guess they'll get cranked up once the monitoring starts happening in full force. But they'll leave the 'little people' to answer questions about the day to day.
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark Twain
I may be getting the cases against Trump mixed up (there are so many), but wasn't part of Judge Engoron's order that TFG may not be involved with any NY company (read: Trump Organization)?
What is to prevent him from reincorporating The Trump Organization in another state? If fact, didn't he incorporate The Trump Organization 2 in New Jersey? So far, afaik, he hasn't transferred any assets from 1 to 2.
Is there anything in the order that prevents the OSG from owning a company in another state, if that company owns assets in NY? Could he simply transfer all the assets of the NY company to the NJ (or some other state) company?
noblepa wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:56 pm
I may be getting the cases against Trump mixed up (there are so many), but wasn't part of Judge Engoron's order that TFG may not be involved with any NY company (read: Trump Organization)?
What is to prevent him from reincorporating The Trump Organization in another state? If fact, didn't he incorporate The Trump Organization 2 in New Jersey? So far, afaik, he hasn't transferred any assets from 1 to 2.
Is there anything in the order that prevents the OSG from owning a company in another state, if that company owns assets in NY? Could he simply transfer all the assets of the NY company to the NJ (or some other state) company?
An alleged attempt by Donald Trump to escape penalties in a $250 million fraud lawsuit involving his real estate company may already have been foiled by New York Attorney General Letitia James' office.
* * *
In October 2022, James' office said that Trump's company set up a new entity that could have been an attempt to offload assets before the case went to trial.
James' office called for measures to be implemented to ensure that the original Trump Organization does not move assets out of New York into the Delaware company or anywhere else without court approval.
* * *
In November 2022, Engoron agreed to James' request that an independent monitor be brought in to oversee the transactions of the Trump Organization after the Delaware-based entity was set up.
noblepa wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:56 pm
Is there anything in the order that prevents the OSG from owning a company in another state, if that company owns assets in NY? Could he simply transfer all the assets of the NY company to the NJ (or some other state) company?
It is Engoron's monitorship order that prevents Trump from moving assets around, for instance, out of state. I've set the video below to the point where Michael Popok starts going through the order, which was expanded significantly today, listing all the restrictions placed on Trump and his businesses. I found it very entertaining.
Tripped over this on YouTube. It’s basically a smalltime idiot showing a video by another idiot (a channel called Doug In Exile) with a larger audience. Probably not worth watching but a good example of the kind of gibberish out there.
MTN explains why Letita James wishes to file a sur-reply to Teh Donalds gibberish about not being able to put up a bond for the appeal.
Trump SIMPLE OMISSION in Court Could COST HIM EVERYTHING
MeidasTouch
21 Mar 2024
Why didn’t Trump simply ask the judge to accept DEEDS of his “trophy” real estate assets in lieu of a bond to stop Monday’s sale of his assets by the NY Attorney General to satisfy her $465+ million dollar judgment? Is it because the appraisals of their value are phony? And why did Trump submit the sworn statements of biased, unqualified witnesses to the appellate court including one that PARTICIPATED IN THE FRAUD itself? Michael Popok of Legal AF, a NY creditors’ rights lawyer, explains it all.
detail on the filing by Letitia James in Westchester County
But Westchester County records show that James isn’t waiting to position law enforcement agencies to grab at his extensive Monopoly board of properties. The AG’s Office officially filed the judgment in Westchester at 9:03 a.m. on Wednesday, March 6, according to county records.
Two employees at the clerk’s office explained that the move effectively means that the AG has placed liens on all properties that belong to Trump, Don Jr., Eric, the Trump Organization, and two of their other listed corporate entities.
The “blanket lien” now in place means that if Trump tries to sell any property in Westchester County, a title search will reveal that there is a half billion dollar judgment hanging over his head.
Seven Springs was one of several real estate ventures that factored into the AG’s bank fraud case against the former president. For years, Trump failed in his attempts to develop the property into a luxury golf course and slice up the land into expensive mansions for sale. The property—which is filled with red oaks, sugar maples, and huckleberry bushes—spans three towns, and residents in each one successfully blocked his plans to bulldoze the forests there to achieve his dream.
MTN Ben Meiselas comments on Teh Donalds outbreak on truthing
Trump Has FULL MELTDOWN as Assets are READY TO BE SEIZED
MeidasTouch
22 Mar 2024
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s latest panic attack over the imminent sale of his properties by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Former President Donald Trump claimed early Friday morning that he has "almost" $500 million in cash, undercutting his lawyers' claims that he would not be able to comply with the $464 million judgment against him and his co-defendants in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social in all caps. "The often overturned political hack judge on the rigged and corrupt A.G. case, where I have done nothing wrong, knew this, wanted to take it away from me, and that’s where and why he came up with the shocking number which, coupled with his crazy interest demand, is approximately $454,000,000."
Trump wrote that he did "nothing wrong except win an election in 2016 that I wasn’t expected to win, did even better in 2020, and now lead, by a lot, in 2024. This is communism in America!"
Trump hasn’t contributed any of his own money to his presidential campaigns since 2016. He had floated in 2020 that he’d personally spend what it took to win re-election, but did not do so.
The former president must post the bond for the full amount he owes on Monday, or James can seize any of Trump’s bank accounts or properties, in any state, including Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, among many others. His lawyers, who have appealed the judgment, said in a court filing Monday that he has been unable to secure a bond to meet it.
Trump is liable for $454 million, most of the fraud judgment, but the amount he owes has been increasing by more than $111,000 a day because of added interest.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
In response to Michael Popok's video, in which he suggests that TFG might have pledged the deeds to his properties as collateral, in lieu of a bond, for the judgement of $454M.
If he did that, he would not only have to prove that the buildings are worth what he says they are, wouldn't he have to also prove that his equity in them was sufficient? We all know that most of his properties are heavily mortgaged. He has bragged about how he is the "king of debt".
Also, too, could he even pledge those deeds if he was not the sole owner of the property? Again, we know that, he often allows his name to be attached to a property in exchange for a minority ownership position. If he were to pledge an asset that he (or the Trump Org) was not the sole owner of, wouldn't the other partner/owners be harmed?
... Trump is now fundraising off threats to “seize Trump Tower.” The New York Post is headlining the same basic idea. But as a friend reminded me yesterday evening, Trump doesn’t own Trump Tower.
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I had to be reminded of this since I actually spent a decent amount of time during the Trump years teaching myself how Trump’s businesses work. But here we are. It would be deeply unfair if Letitia James seized Trump Tower. But Donald Trump doesn’t own it. Like, how unfair would that be to the people who actually own it who have nothing to do with Donald Trump?
At one level this is entirely obvious if you think about it. Trump Tower is owned by the people who own the apartment units. It’s not just apartment units of course. And … well, a lot of those are owned by foreigners trying to hide money in the U.S. But I digress. What he actually owns at Trump Tower is “the parking garage, the valet booth, room-service kitchens, lobby bathrooms, a restaurant space, and one unit.”
That’s his apartment, the size of which he dramatically exaggerated, plus a bunch of stuff of relatively minor value (compared to the notional value of the building) which probably anchors the service contract for the building but which is also probably next to impossible to untangle from the building. What I do remember is that Trump actually owns very few of his buildings. His basic model is that he goes to a city, lines up money to build the building (not infrequently from some utter shade-meister, especially when it’s overseas), essentially licenses his name to operation, builds it and then gets what amounts to an ongoing residual in the form of some kind of servicing contract tied to the structure. You sell the units to a mix of people who are wowed by the Trump name and others from Russia and Saudi who want to park their money through a blind LLC. And basically everyone’s happy. But a lot of the flashy stuff can’t be seized because it’s not his.
Obviously that’s not fraud. That’s just his being in the licensing business rather than a real estate guy. And there’s no real secret to that. Where it probably becomes more meaningful is that what he does own is by design deeply intertwined with the real stuff that other people own and in a way that is probably at least some level of headache to untangle. Think of it as the ownership stake equivalent of the latent chicken pox virus those of us over 40 still have in our bodies or maybe the cold sore virus most people have deep, deep, deep in the nerve tissue in the facial muscles around their mouth: almost infinitesimally small, generally of negligible importance unless you have a flare up but also all but impossible to uproot and get rid of.
One way or another it’s not where the money is. So as David notes, James isn’t focused on Trump Tower. She’s filing papers to seize a Trump golf course and one of his private estates in Westchester. Of course, this doesn’t get into the issue of Trump’s pervasive fraudulent over-valuation of all his assets as loan collateral that got him into this mess in the first place.
The stuff he actually owns owns is the stuff James is going after — golf courses, big houses, stuff like that. He has a few days before his 30 day grace period ends and she can start taking stuff.
chancery wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 4:02 pm
(Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo): We Have Met the Enemy and He Owns the Valet Booth at Trump Tower What he actually owns at Trump Tower is “the parking garage, the valet booth, room-service kitchens, lobby bathrooms, a restaurant
That's all he owns at the "Trump International Hotel and Tower" at 1 Central Park West, just north of Columbus Circle.
"Trump Tower" is at 725 Fifth Ave betw 56 and 57. Per this Overview of his NYC holdings, the Trump Organization owns the retail and commercial portions of the building and Trump owns a triplex apartment here (that's the one whose size he exaggerated).
Easy to get confused, but they are different buildings. The holdings at Trump Tower seem more substantial.
Take what he owns in the tower and there are others who would pay for those assets and the service contracts associated.
You don’t have to upset the actual owners in the buildings.. of course you would change the name to..
The Former Guy Tower
Dave from down under wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 4:57 pm
of course you would change the name to..
The Former Guy Tower
or Turnip Tower.
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
So as to not over-anticipate the outcome of the upcoming deadline for payment to pause enforcement action, can anyone confirm that the payment must be made by the end of today (Sunday 24th March) not by the end of (working?) day tomorrow? Don’t want to start grinning prematurely.
