No. of Recommendations: 15
Because the penalty is being imposed before the judic1al process is complete.
So what? People have to pay judgments before their appeal is settled. People go to jail before their appeals are settled. Just because you file an appeal doesn't mean you have any right to forestall the consequences of losing your trial for years and years. The trial isn't the beginning of a judicial process - the outcome of the trial is a final judgment.
That's the difference between posting security and getting a stay on the final ruling. When you lose a trial, you have to pay the plaintiff what you owe. If you get a stay of that final ruling, then the status quo is preserved, and you don't have to pay anybody anything. You usually can get that if an appellate court believes you have a legitimate chance of prevailing on your appeal. The final judgment is put on hold.
If you don't get a stay, you have to pay the money right then. The final judgment goes into effect immediately. You have to give up the money right away. However, you are given an option if you want to appeal. Instead of paying any money to the plaintiff, you can pay the money to the court. Which holds the money for the plaintiff (so the plaintiff has no risk) - but that way, in the off chance you win on appeal, you don't run the risk that you can't get the money back from the plaintiff. You can put the money in the "box" in the court either in cash, or a bond (in which case the bonding company will want about 1-3% of the amount in premium and to restrict your ability to use the collateral). You have a penalty immediately - you lose access to whatever the amount of the judgment is, either because it's in the court's possession or because you've encumbered it to the bonding company.
Trump asked for a stay from the appellate court, and it was denied. So he has to either pay the amount of the judgment to the court, or get someone to post a bond. This is the same thing that happens to everyone who loses a civil trial and doesn't get a stay.
Because the penalty is not based on the harm to known victims,
Of course it is. Trump was able to get people to lend him money at too low an interest rate relative to the risks they took, by lying to them about the value of the collateral. This is pretty basic stuff, even for ordinary borrowers. If you have a loan-to-value ratio of 90% on your home, for example, you just pay your interest; if you have an LTV of only 70%, you don't, because you have to pay mortgage insurance. Because the lower value of the collateral relative to the loan imposes a bigger risk, so you get charged more for the loan. So if you get someone to falsify an appraisal, you can defraud the lender out of the money they would have and should have been paid - and they suffer that harm even if, after the fact, you end up not defaulting.
The judge calculated the amount of higher interest that Trump managed to avoid by inflating his property values, and that's what the amount was based on.
