After losing his last trial, Donald Trump had to pay a bond of almost two hundred million dollars - once the original $464m value was slashed in half by an appeals court. During the negotiations, he made it sound as if even that full sum was a piece of cake. Then it was said that in order to be able to pay such a sum, some properties would have to be sold - allegedly well below their value.
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The former president has now paid the $175m bond - meaning that his assets will not be seized. However, all this talk of his properties has led to many people wondering just how much are the Trump assets are worth anyway?
Donald Trump allegedly overstated real estate values for years
Everything in this conversation was revolving around the value of the ex-president's properties in particular - which were one of the reasons why he had to stand trial.
Donald Trump, together with his sons and some of his employees, is said to have falsified the Trump Organization's balance sheets for years and deliberately stated higher property values in order to obtain better credit terms and the like.
This is now his undoing
He has now been charged with fraud and lost the case. The Republican was originally asked to pay a fine totaling around 450 million dollars, and that led to some problems.
Although he had previously emphasized several times that he had a fortune of over 400 million dollars, he then seemed to be having serious problems just getting the necessary bail together.
He himself repeatedly accused the judges of being corrupt and working for the Democrats. His lawyers also emphasized that the penalty was set so high on purpose: to force Trump to sell his properties 'as quickly as possible and significantly below value' - and thus cause him lasting (financial) damage.
This is how much his real estate should actually be worth
This naturally raises the question of how much the 79-year-old's properties are actually worth. Here is a brief overview:
- Trump Tower, the landmark and centerpiece of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump's campaign committee, was valued at 131 million dollars by the company, which is currently only acting as a tenant. However, experts strongly doubt this, as there is a lot of vacancy in the tower. There is currently no concrete estimate of the actual value.
- Mar-a-Lago, Trump's former vacation home, is now his main residence. The property has already made headlines, especially because of Trump's guests. According to him, the complex in Florida is worth 740 million dollars. The actual value was estimated to be between $18 million and $27 million dollars - a stark difference!
- The Trump Building, also in New York, is located on Wall Street and was awarded the equivalent of 550 million dollars by Trump and Co. However, experts believe that the property is worth 200 million dollars.
- Seven Springs and other properties: Donald Trump and the Trump Organization own many other properties, most of which are difficult to estimate the actual value of. Similar to the Trump Tower, they also have a high vacancy rate. However, it can also be assumed here that Trump's estimate and that of the independent experts are likely to diverge significantly.
This article has been adapted from Oh!MyMag DE.
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Source used:
Berliner Morgenpost: Trump Tower und Co.: So wertvoll sind Trumps Immobilien
Independent: How did Trump pay his $175m fraud bond – and who helped him?
