Former US President Donald Trump has posted a $175m (£140m) bond in his New York civil fraud case, staving off asset seizures by the state.

He was found in February to have fraudulently inflated property values, and was ordered to pay a $464m penalty.

Posting bond means New York’s attorney general cannot enforce the penalty, by freezing bank accounts or taking property, until his appeals are heard.

The Republican denies wrongdoing and says the case is a political hit job.

Mr Trump was originally ordered to post bond amounting to the full penalty but it was reduced to $175m last week after his lawyers said it was “impossible” to secure a bond of that size.

If the three judges on the appeal panel rule against him, he will have to come up with the full $464m or risk the dismantling of his fabled property empire.

For now at least, Mr Trump is spared the humiliation of seeing his real estate assets such as Trump Tower in Manhattan and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida taken away from him.

In a statement, his lawyer Alina Habba said: “As promised, President Trump has posted bond. He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict.”

The fraud case against Mr Trump was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, in 2022.

Justice Arthur Engoron, also a Democrat, broadly sided with Ms James’ argument that Mr Trump should pay a steep price for fraudulently misrepresenting his assets in order to get more favourable loans and interest rates over the course of years.

Mr Trump argued the case had no victims because the banks got repaid with interest and no financial institution sued him for the exaggerated estimates of his net worth.

Justice Engoron also barred Mr Trump from running a New York business for three years.

He was also prohibited from getting loans from New York financial institutions over the same period.

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