Trump Organization accounting firm delivers blow that could be pivotal to NY AG case
Mazars USA LLP, the longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization, has a new role: star witness in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into whether Trump’s company engaged in fraud. Mazars has some explaining to do. And none of it bodes well for the Trump Organization.
On Monday, James made public a bombshell letter from Mazars dated Feb. 9 warning that 10 years of the “Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump” ending in June 2020 cannot be relied upon and saying it was parting ways with Trump. This is a stunning setback to the Trump company’s defense.
The attorney general has alleged that Trump and his company used fraudulent and misleading financial statements to inflate asset values to secure loans from banks as well as reduce their values to lower their tax obligations. Mazars’ disclaimer that the values in these statements are untrustworthy directly bolsters the attorney general’s charge.
In response, the Trump organization stated that Mazars’ letter renders the investigations by James and a grand jury convened by the Manhattan district attorney to consider a separate criminal case “moot.” That is a fantasy. [Continue reading…]