Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 19, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba TOP NEWS A3 TUESDAY MARCH 19, 2024 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Ex-president doesn’t have cash, bond companies refuse real estate collateral Trump unable to post US$454-M bond N EW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appellate court Monday that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of a US$454 million civil fraud judgment while he appeals. The former president’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that “obtaining an ap- peal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the cir- cumstances presented.” Trump’s lawyers asked the state’s intermediate appeals court to overturn a previous ruling requiring that he post a bond covering the full amount in order to halt enforcement while he appeals the judgment in New York At- torney General Letitia James’ lawsuit. With interest, Trump owes US$456.8 million. In all, he and co-defendants, including his company, sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. and other executives, owe US$467.3 million. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collat- eral worth US$557 million, Trump’s lawyers said. The Washington Post reported that Trump approached 30 surety providers and all declined to issue a bond backed by Trump real estate assets. “Critical among these challenges is not just the inability and reluctance of the vast majority of sureties to under- write a bond for this unprecedented sum, but, even more significantly, the unwillingness of every surety bond provider approached by Defendants to accept real estate as collateral,” Alan Garten, the Trump company’s general counsel, wrote in a sworn submission according to the Post. Surety companies are requiring Trump to put up the entire amount needed for the bond, around US$464 million, in collateral, according to the defense filing. Legal experts said that a likelihood of the appeal failing is the main reason companies would mandate such terms. “Insurance companies in appeals cases tend to want the full amount of the judgment as collateral,” said Adam Pollock, an attorney who formerly served as assistant attorney general in New York, told the Post. Trump is appealing Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in February that he, his company and top executives, in- cluding his sons, schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals. Among other penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Trump’s company, the Trump Organiz- ation, to do business. Trump has until March 25 to pay the judgment or obtain a court order known as a stay which would prevent enforcement while he is appealing. James, a Democrat, has said she will seek to seize some of Trump’s assets if he is unable to pay. James’ office declined comment Monday on Trump’s inability to secure a bond. In a court filing last week, Senior Assistant Solicitor General Dennis Fan wrote that a full bond was necessary, in part, because Trump’s lawyers “have never demonstrated that Mr. Trump’s liquid assets — which may fluctuate over time — will be enough to satisfy the full amount of this judgment follow- ing appeal.” Trump’s lawyers asked the inter- mediate appeals court, the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court, to con- sider oral arguments on its request, and they preemptively sought permission to appeal a losing result to the state’s high- est court, the Court of Appeals. Trump is asking a full panel of the Appellate Division to stay the judgment while he appeals. His lawyers previ- ously proposed posting a US$100 mil- lion bond, but Appellate Division Judge Anil Singh rejected that after an emer- gency hearing on Feb. 28. A stay is a legal mechanism pausing collection of a judgment during an appeal. Singh did grant some of Trump’s re- quests, including pausing a three-year ban on him seeking loans from New York banks. An insurance broker friend enlist- ed by Trump to assist in obtaining a bond wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that few bonding companies will consider issuing a bond of the size required. The remaining bonding companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,” but “will only ac- cept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities).” “A bond of this size is rarely, if ever, seen. In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is pro- vided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or pri- vately held businesses,” broker Gary Giulietti wrote. Giulietti, who acts as an insurance broker for Trump’s company, testified at Trump’s civil fraud trial as an expert witness called by the former presi- dent’s defense lawyers. In his ruling, Engoron observed that some of Giuli- etti’s testimony was contradicted by other witnesses, including a different defense expert. Engoron wrote that in his more than 20 years as a judge, he’d “never encoun- tered an expert witness who not only was a close personal friend of a party, but also had a personal financial inter- est in the outcome of the case for which he is being offered as an expert.” He noted that Giulietti’s company collected US$1.2 million in commissions on its Trump accounts in 2022. Trump appealed on Feb. 26, a few days after the judgment was made offi- cial. His lawyers have asked the Appel- late Division to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction. Trump wasn’t required to pay his pen- alty or post a bond in order to appeal, and filing the appeal did not automatically halt enforcement of the judgment. Trump would receive an automatic stay if he were to put up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. He also had the option, which he’s now exercising, to ask the appeals court to grant a stay with a bond for a lower amount. Trump maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year that he had about US$400 million in cash, in addition to properties and other investments. In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay US$83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she ac- cused him in 2019 of sexually assault- ing her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump recently posted a bond covering that amount while he appeals. That’s in addition to the US$5 million a jury awarded Carroll in a related trial last year. Trump has put more than US$5.5 million in an escrow account while he appeals that decision. — The Associated Press, with files MICHAEL R. SISAK KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP Former U.S. President Donald Trump needs to post US$557 million in cash or cash equivalents to appeal the massive fine imposed on himself and two of his sons from his fraud trial. Legal experts say the likelihood of the appeal failing has spooked insurance companies, banks and surety providers. Frustrated Manitobans driving to Moose Jaw for heart scans A GROWING wait list for elective heart scans in Manitoba is prompting some residents to drive to Saskatchewan and pay for the tests. At the South Saskatchewan Heart Clinic in Moose Jaw, Dr. Jeffrey Wilkin- son says his private facility is seeing a handful of Manitobans make the drive to get echocardiograms each week. “If you’re waiting on a heart test for a year, that’s a really big problem. People are gonna demand reasonable access to health-care services… a lot of patients are living in fear and anxiety,” Wilkin- son told the Free Press. The clinic, located about 650 kilo- metres west of Winnipeg, performs echocardiograms, which use sound waves to track blood flow through the heart and heart valves and can help health-care providers diagnose heart conditions, for a fee. The clinic went private in October, when it opted out of Saskatchewan’s publicly funded heath-care system af- ter struggling to meet its costs under the province’s fee structure. A consultation and an electrocardio- gram — a standard procedure before an echocardiogram — runs patients $350 at the clinic. Wilkinson wouldn’t reveal how much the clinic charges for heart scans. The wait list at the clinic is between one and two weeks for an echocardio- gram, despite the growing number of out-of-towners seeking health-care, Wilkinson said. “It’s their heart, it’s important,” he said. Max Johnson has been waiting more than three months to get an appoint- ment for an echocardiogram. In November the retiree was ground- ed after travelling to Tbilisi in Georgia — a country located at the intersection of Europe and Asia — due to a blood clot. A clinic in Georgia then found Johnson had a heart issue and referred him to a cardiologist when he got back to Winnipeg. “Now I’m in the ‘waiting room’ for an appointment, and that’s when you really don’t know when you’ll be seen,” John- son said. Shared Health said the median wait time for elective echocardiograms is 30 weeks, but patients triaged as need- ing a scan on an urgent or semi-urgent basis are prioritized and generally do not wait long. However, Wilkinson said patients making the near seven-hour drive to Moose Jaw can’t or won’t wait that long. Johnson has previously travelled to Lithuania for elective knee surgery, and said he would travel again if he doesn’t get an appointment for a heart scan soon. “The not knowing is the hardest,” he said. “If they would turn around and say, ‘Your appointment is July the 8th,’ I would grumble, but live with it. But it’s that the requisition goes into this void and there’s nothing you can do but wait.” The union representing specialized health-care workers said the province is falling behind on national wait times for heart scans. Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said accepted bench- marks are 30 days or less for elective echocardiograms, less than seven days for urgent scans and under 24 hours for emergencies. “We’re seeing Manitoba significant- ly higher than other jurisdictions,” Linklater said. Most elective cardiac scans in Winni- peg are performed at either Health Sci- ences Centre or St. Boniface Hospital, which have cardiology staff vacancies and are contributing to the rising num- ber of patients seeking diagnostic tests at private clinics, the union president said. Prota Clinic, a private facility in the city, was doing echocardiograms for a fee between 2017 and last March, when the province ordered a stop after the federal government found Prota had been charging patients contrary to the Canada Health Act and its diagnostic services policy. The private medical centre had charged patients more than $353,000 for necessary tests, leading to a claw- back in provincial health funding. Linklater said Manitobans shouldn’t have to flee to the private sector to find health care and insisted the province do more to recruit and retain special- ized health-care workers. “We have an opportunity here to build capacity within the public system. And certainly that’s what we believe is the best approach towards solving this problem; it’s more cost-effective, there’s more accountability, and it pro- vides better connected and co-ordin- ated care which really, really matters for patients and providers,” he said. In February Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Wab Kinew an- nounced funding to move on the NDP government’s plan to hire more doc- tors and nurses, but Johnson pointed to administration as the real flaw in the province’s health-care system. “Our requests get passed from so many hands to so many computers. And by the time it finally spits it out, it’s been a reasonably long time,” said the retired travel agency owner. A Shared Health spokesperson said a new scanning machine and technol- ogist were added at Grace Hospital in January, which freed up space for 120 echocardiograms to be performed each month. Johnson is planning to travel back to Tbilisi at the end of May and says if he still doesn’t have an appointment with a doctor at home he’ll pay to have it done in Georgia. “I’m very fortunate that I have the resources that I can take advantage of — going out of town or out of country,” he said. “But I think of the thousands of people for that is simply not an option.” nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca NICOLE BUFFIE MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Max Johnson is frustrated that requisitions for heart scans go ‘into this void and there’s nothing you can do but wait.’ ;