Trump never paid the lower court’s hefty fine, so there won’t be any half-billion dollar checks exchanging hands. Instead, the president is now eligible to get back the $175 million bond he posted to hold off collection while he pursued his appeal. Such bonds are common in the appellate process, acting as placeholder to guarantee payment.

A panel of New York appeals court judges said today that the roughly $520 million penalty imposed on President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth was excessive. The court eliminated the financial penalty while preserving the judgment that the president had committed fraud.