(Sept 27): Donald Trump’s lawyers are on a mission to wipe out his biggest financial liability — a nearly half-billion dollar civil fraud verdict in New York that’s soaring by more than US$100,000 (RM412,350) every day.

Lawyers for the Republican presidential nominee asked an appeals court on Thursday to toss out a US$454 million penalty levied against Trump for exaggerating his wealth in banking documents to get better terms on loans. They argue the claims were filed too late by New York authorities and that “clear disclaimers” on Trump’s documents advised banks to do their own assessments of his wealth.

“The disclaimers say what everybody already knows you do in this industry — you do your own due diligence,” Trump attorney John Sauer told a panel of five appellate judges, several of whom appeared open to his arguments.

The fight, just six weeks before Election Day, is playing out as Trump’s wealth has fluctuated wildly amid the rise and fall of his social media startup. His majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp added billions to his net worth earlier this year and created a potential source of cash to pay the fraud penalty. But that windfall has shrunk as the stock has collapsed.

A decision by the Manhattan appellate court isn’t expected before the Nov 5 election and could take several months. If Trump loses, he can take the case to New York’s highest court and, if necessary, to the US Supreme Court — though doing so could drag out a final decision until 2026.

The appeal is a financial gamble. The verdict, in a suit brought by New York’s attorney general, has accumulated about US$23 million in interest costs during Trump’s challenge, bringing the total he owes to roughly US$477 million. Further time-consuming appeals could add to that sum.

“We are confident that a fair hearing on the merits of this case will result in a total dismissal of the unconstitutional, unlawful judgement,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The verdict was the biggest liability listed on Trump’s financial disclosure form filed on Aug 13 with the US Office of Government Ethics. It far exceeds his other big debts, including a US$160 million Ladder Capital Finance LLC mortgage for his 40 Wall Street skyscraper, and a pair of Axos Bank mortgages totalling US$225 million for Trump Tower and Trump National Doral golf course.

The penalty was handed down after a New York judge found Trump had exaggerated his wealth by billions of dollars a year on annual financial documents for more than a decade to get better terms on loans, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in “ill-gotten” profits. Trump, 78, denies wrongdoing.

Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who has tracked Trump’s cases closely, said she thinks Trump has a “decent chance” at getting the penalty at least partially reduced because the method used to calculate ill-gotten profit is “not a hard science”.

During Thursday’s hearing, a majority of the appellate panel focused their questions on the attorney general’s lawyer, Judith Vale. The judges repeatedly asked for explanations about the extent of the attorney general’s power under New York law and why the case had been filed when no banks or consumers lost money. One judge called the size of the penalty “troubling” and asked why the case shouldn’t be seen as “mission creep”.

Vale was also pressed about Trump’s use of disclaimers and the argument that Trump’s conduct had “little to no impact on the public marketplace”.

“There was absolutely a public impact,” Vale said. “When deceptively hidden risks are injected into the market that does hurt the counterparties — and there was harm to the counterparties here — but it also harms other market participants and the market as a whole because they are not understanding the risks.”

The appeal hearing is refocusing attention on Trump’s shifting financial fortunes. His wealth has been driven this year by the share price of Trump Media, which immediately became his biggest asset when it debuted on public markets in March. Trump’s net worth soared by more than US$4 billion to US$6.5 billion, placing him on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranking of the world’s 500 richest people for the first time.

The value of Trump’s stake jumped again when he was granted more shares that were contingent on meeting certain price targets. By early May, Trump was worth US$8.8 billion, making him the 293rd-richest person on the planet.

But most of that was on paper because Trump couldn’t sell his shares until the end of a lock-up period, which ended last week. The stock is now down about 80% from it’s high in late March.

Trump is now worth US$4.1 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index. He’s vowed not to sell his Trump Media shares, a pledge he kept through Monday, the earliest day such a move would be disclosed.

Trump’s stake is currently worth about US$1.6 billion and he still can freely sell millions of shares or use them as collateral for loans. However, experts have pointed to thin trading volumes, potential volatility and regulatory restrictions around rapidly selling shares as a deterrent to Trump using the shares as collateral.

Trump Media shares, by some measures, have been more volatile than bitcoin and meme stock GameStop Corp. Its 30-day realised volatility sits around 97, more than double bitcoin’s reading and well above the likes of Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc.

Meanwhile, the billionaire is eying new income sources that could generate quick cash down the road, from US$100 silver coins bearing his likeness to a crypto project that he has said will take on traditional banks.

Trump faces other financial liabilities stemming from court decisions. Those include the US$83.3 million verdict against Trump in writer E Jean Carroll’s defamation case, and a separate US$5 million verdict in her sexual-abuse lawsuit. His total legal debts are close to US$600 million.

The filing with US Office of Government Ethics, which covers Trump’s finances for 2023 and the first four months of 2024, also showed US$513 million in income from US resort and residential properties including his Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster clubs. He also reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from licensing his name and image to promote sales of the “God Bless the USA Bible”.

Additional income streamed in from Trump-branded items including high-top sneakers and non-fungible tokens. He also got about US$500,000 from a photo book of his presidency.

Paying the verdict could be complicated if his appeal eventually fails because his real estate holdings are vast but illiquid. Earlier in the case, Trump said he had US$400 million to US$500 million in cash, but the appeal bond was lowered to US$175 million after he said he didn’t have the resources to cover the full amount.

Uploaded by Siow Chen Ming