Trump Crony Behind Bond Says He Charged A "Low Fee"

Don Hankey, the billionaire businessman whose company Knight Specialty Insurance Co. (KSIC) provided the $175 million bond that Donald Trump posted in his New York civil fraud case, told Koh Gui Qing of Reuters, that the fee his firm charged the defeated former US president was low.

Hankey, who backed Trump as a presidential candidate in 2016 and has said he supports his re-election, has maintained that providing the bond was a business decision. I Photo: The Hankey Group

Hankey, who backed Trump as a presidential candidate in 2016 and has said he supports his re-election, has maintained that providing the bond was a business decision.

He declined to disclose the fee but said it was low because Knight did not think there was much risk involved. Lawyers say surety companies typically charge a fee of between 1% and 2% of the face value of the bond.

Hankey said he now feels KSIC did not charge Trump enough because of New York Attorney General Letitia James' subsequent scrutiny of the bond, as well as the media attention around it.

"We thought it would be an easy procedure that wouldn't involve other legal problems, and it's not turning out that way. We probably didn't charge enough," Hankey said in an interview.

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