The accounting firm Mazars reported Monday it could no longer answer for Trump´s income tax returns and financial statements used to obtain loans for his company. The letter came weeks after New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office uncovered evidence Trump and the company used fraudulent or misleading valuations of its golf clubs, skyscrapers and other property to get loans and tax benefits.
“While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,” Mazars General Counsel William J. Kelly wrote to his Trump Organization counterpart, Alan Garten. Kelly said Mazars performed its work on the financial statements “in accordance with professional standards” but that it could no longer stand by the documents in light of James’ findings and its own investigation. Kelly also informed Garten that Mazars could no longer work with Trump because of a conflict of interest and urged him to find another tax preparer.
“We are writing to inform you that the Financial Statements of Donald J. Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 – June 30, 2020, should no longer be relied upon and you should advise any recipient thereof that you are currently relying on one or more of those documents and that those documents should not be trusted in.”
Later in his letter, Mr. Kelly advised that “no further reliance on these financial statements is appropriate,” after Ms. James asserted a month ago that her office found significant additional evidence that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a series of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions.
Currently the statements former president used to guarantee his loans are at the center of two law enforcement investigations into whether he overstated the value of his properties to defraud his lenders into providing him with the best loan terms.
mh/pll/mem/lb
