Trump unable to get $464m bond in New York fraud case, his lawyers say

Donald Trump cannot find a private company to guarantee the $464 million (£365 million) he has to pay in a New York civil fraud lawsuit.

Trump has been told to either pay the full amount in cash or secure a bond to continue his appeal. Should he fail to comply, Trump faces the prospect of liquidating some of his real estate assets.

A bonding company, for a fee, would pledge the full amount to the New York court, to be paid if Trump loses his appeal and is unable to do so himself.

In his statement, Trump said that the bond he was asked to pay would be “impossible for any company, including one as successful as mine”.

“The bonding companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before,” he said.

According to court filings, the former president’s team spent “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world”.

But they concluded that “very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude”.

Trump’s lawyers said they had approached 30 companies without success. 

His two eldest sons must also pay millions of dollars in the case.