00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Tuesday, March 26.
00:05 Today on Forbes, here's why the Kushners are unlikely to help pay Trump's bond.
00:11 Yesterday, a New York state appeals court said that former President Donald Trump will
00:17 not have to immediately post a bond for more than $454 million in the civil fraud case
00:23 against him and his company.
00:25 The court said that Trump can delay payment of the full appeals bond as long as he posts
00:30 a partial $175 million bond within 10 days.
00:35 He had until yesterday, March 25, to post the appeals bond in the full amount plus interest
00:41 before New York Attorney General Letitia James had planned to collect on the judgment.
00:45 Last week, Trump's attorneys said in a legal filing that he was unable to secure the bond
00:50 for the full amount.
00:52 Even with a reduced bond of $175 million, it's still unclear whether Trump can find
00:58 a company to underwrite that amount, or even if he has the collateral to put up.
01:03 This, after already posting a bond for $91.6 million earlier in March in a separate civil
01:08 case judgment against him for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer E. Jean Carroll.
01:14 To come up with a reduced bond, the former president could turn to his many rich friends,
01:19 but none have evidently come to his rescue so far.
01:22 There are also his wealthy family members, the Kushners.
01:26 In 2017, Forbes estimated the net worth of his son-in-law Jared Kushner's family at $1.8
01:32 billion, including $1.1 billion in real estate and $200 million in cash and liquid assets.
01:39 Forbes estimated the combined net worth of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at $375 million
01:45 in 2019, with most of it, $324 million, coming from Jared.
01:51 Since leaving the White House in 2021, Kushner has gotten back into business.
01:56 He still owns part of the Kushner Companies, the family's New York-based real estate firm
02:01 that claims to have $16 billion in assets.
02:04 The company was founded in 1985 by Jared's father, Charles, who ran it until he was sentenced
02:09 to two years in prison for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering
02:15 in 2005, leading to Jared taking a larger role in the family business.
02:20 In his last financial disclosure as a senior advisor to the Trump administration in 2021,
02:25 he disclosed between $206 million and $801 million in assets, minus a range of $26 million
02:32 to $130 million in liabilities.
02:35 In the same disclosure, he disclosed income between $21 million and $114 million.
02:42 For her part, Ivanka reported between $600,000 and $1.5 million in assets and about $2.6
02:49 million in income.
02:51 It's highly unlikely that Kushner would come to Trump's aid, even if he could.
02:56 For starters, much of his family's wealth is tied up in real estate.
03:00 About 60% of Kushner's assets in his disclosure were interests in commercial and residential
03:05 real estate, most of them tied to his family's company.
03:09 In court filings, Trump's lawyers stated that securing the bond was a "practical impossibility,"
03:15 partly because many bond companies refused to accept "hard assets such as real estate
03:20 as collateral."
03:23 It's likely that the Kushners, were they to try to secure the bond on Trump's behalf,
03:27 would face the same issues.
03:29 And much like Trump himself, they have their own debt to deal with.
03:34 According to Real Capital Analytics, the firm's properties, including joint ventures, have
03:39 an estimated total value of $9 billion and $4.7 billion in debt at origination.
03:47 Most of the Kushners' property holdings are made up of apartments, with the largest
03:50 portion concentrated in New York and New Jersey.
03:54 The Kushners haven't had much luck turning those assets into hard cash recently.
03:58 In December, the firm sold a portfolio of three apartment buildings in Manhattan's
04:02 East Village for $57 million, $12 million less than the value they had been appraised
04:08 at in December 2019, when the company took out a $45.1 million loan on the portfolio.
04:15 That's not surprising, given the sales of multi-family buildings in New York fell by
04:19 52% in 2023 compared to the year before, according to Ariel Property Advisors.
04:26 Then there's Jared's Affinity Partners, a private equity firm that he founded in 2021.
04:32 The firm held about $3.1 billion in assets under management, and Kushner was listed as
04:37 the sole owner, according to its latest SEC filing from March 2023.
04:42 The firm's assets, $3 billion, includes the $2 billion that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment
04:48 Fund reportedly invested in 2021, according to The New York Times, a deal that has come
04:54 under scrutiny.
04:56 But regardless, that money is likely unavailable for use in this case.
05:01 For full coverage, check out Giacomo Tognini's piece on Forbes.com.
05:07 This is Ciarán Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.
05:10 [music]
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