Meet Indian American Judge Who Denied Trump’s Request to Delay Posting $464 Million Bond in Civil Fraud Case

New York State Appellate Judge Anil Singh has denied Donald Trump’s request to delay the $464 million judgment in his civil fraud case. Singh ruled that the former president must post a bond covering the full amount in order to stop enforcement of the judgment. 

In a court hearing yesterday (Feb. 28), Trump’s lawyers tried to get the court to agree to a partial bond of $100 million, arguing he had no way to secure a higher amount without selling off some of his real estate. “A bond to cover the judgment in the case would have to be at least 120% of the total judgment— more than $550 million,” attorneys said, according a ABC News report. 

Earlier this month, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and his co-defendants must pay more than $363 million in disgorgement for lying on annual financial statements. “With more than $100 million in interest, which steadily increases with every passing day, the defendants are on the hook for more than $464 million total,” Courthouse News Service reported, adding that “Trump himself owes around $455 million of that sum.”

Singh, 65, temporarily lifted aspects of Engoron’s ruling, which will allow Trump “to take out bank loans in New York and continue conducting business there for the time being,” Courthouse News Service said. But he denied Trump’s request “to halt the financial penalties and the installation of a compliance officer at his company,” the report added. “The interim stay is denied as to the enforcement of the monetary judgment and the installation of an Independent Director of Compliance,” Singh wrote. 

However, Singh did agree to pause the enforcement of the part of the judgment that prohibited Trump and his sons from running their family business for the next several years. ABC News notes that the former president still has at least two opportunities to appeal the ruling — “first with a panel of judges at New York’s Appellate Division, First Department next month, then with New York’s Court of Appeals if the first attempt is unsuccessful.”

The case against Trump, his adult sons and their namesake businesses was brought in 2020 by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Courthouse News Service, reported a letter she sent to the appellate court on Feb. 28. “There is no merit to defendants’ contention that a full bond or deposit is unnecessary because they are willing to post a partial undertaking of less than a quarter of the judgment amount,” she wrote. “These are precisely the circumstances for which a full bond or deposit is necessary, where defendants’ approach would leave OAG with substantial shortfalls once this court affirms the judgment.”

When the India-born Singh immigrated to the U.S. at age 18 years, the idea of being a judge wasn’t in his mind, perhaps because there weren’t other South Asian judges at the time.

Meanwhile, The New York Times notes that if Trump “fails to secure the bond, the New York attorney general’s office can collect the $454 million from him.” The attorney general, however, “is expected to provide Trump a 30-day grace period, which will expire on March 25, at which point she could move swiftly to seize his bank accounts and perhaps take control of his New York properties.”

Who is Judge Anil Singh?

When the India-born Singh immigrated to the U.S. at age 18 years, the idea of being a judge wasn’t in his mind, perhaps because there weren’t other South Asian judges at the time, he told Bloomberg Law in a Oct. 5, 2023 interview. “Maybe in the back of my head I had a dream that I wanted to be a judge, but it was not a dream that I could really articulate because there wasn’t anyone to articulate it to,” he said. 

After earning a B.A. degree from Lawrence University in 1980, he enrolled in Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., which awarded him a J.D. degree in 1986. He worked as principal court attorney to the Hon. Alice Schlesinger in both the Civil Court of the City of New York and the New York Supreme Court from 1987 through 2002. 

That year, Singh was elected to fill Schlesinger’s vacant seat at the Civil Court.He recalled in the Bloomberg Law interview of being taught the ropes of the role by his former boss. He admitted that critics worried he wouldn’t understand what the caseload is like for lawyers and be able to work with their schedules, as he had not worked in private practice before joining the bench. But his first day in court was like “landing a plane after serving as an assistant pilot,” he told the publication.  “Since I had been doing the work for 15 years, it was a smooth adjustment.”

Before his election as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court in November 2013, Singh served as a judge for over a decade. He was elected to the Civil Court of the City of New York in 2012, where he presided over jury, non-jury and small claims cases, including tort matters; commercial disputes; consumer credit cases; real estate matters, including commercial landlord-tenant cases; subrogation matters; and insurance disputes.

He was designated as an Acting Supreme Court Justice in April 2010, where he presided over Individual Assignment Part 61 until March 2015. He conducted Supreme Court jury and non-jury tort and commercial trials. Additionally, he served as a presiding justice in the Mortgage Foreclosure Settlement Part. A number of his memorandum decisions have been published in the Official Reports, the New York Law Journal and Westlaw. He was appointed to the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court in April 2015.