A judicial billionaire who paid Trump 175 million dollars: Who is Don Hɛŋƙı́?

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and his co-defendants posted a $175 million bond in his civil fraud case in New York on Monday, after a judge ruled that they had inflated the value of his properties for many years. The bond is backed by an insurance company owned by a billionaire who started his career by issuing high-risk auto loans to car buyers with poor credit histories.

Don Henke, the CEO of the company that provided the collateral, is a little-known magnate who has amassed a fortune of $7.4 billion through car dealerships and issuing auto loans to borrowers with low credit ratings. This makes him richer than Trump, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $6.4 billion, including his large stake in the recently publicly traded Trump Media & Technology Group.

Who is Don Henke?

Henke started in the automotive industry when his father bought a stake in a Ford dealership in Los Angeles in 1958. As a teenager, Henke began helping wash cars in the summer, but later took on a position as a salesperson, he shared in an interview with the Los Angeles Business Journal last year.

How did Henki get into the auto loan business?

After purchasing the dealership, Henki became interested in customers who were often rejected by other sellers: borrowers with poor credit histories.

What does Henki work in?

Hankey expanded beyond car dealerships when he realized there was a demand for auto loans for those with poor credit histories outside of Los Angeles. He created Westlake Financial Services, which now works with over 30,000 dealers nationwide to provide auto loans to people with bad credit. Westlake is currently part of the Hankey Group, which also controls other financial companies, including Knight Insurance Group, the firm that provided collateral for Trump.

How does a $175 million collateral work?

Appellate security deposits are used when the defendant appeals a court decision, which essentially freezes the enforcement of the financial ruling while the legal process continues.

Insurers typically provide a bond after receiving the collateral materials and charge a fee for the service, which ranges from 1% to 2% of the bond amount. This means that Trump could be paying up to $3.5 million annually for the bond provided by Knight Insurance.

"As promised, President Trump has posted bail. He hopes to assert his rights in the appeal and overturn this unjust decision," said one of Trump's lawyers, Alina Habba.