President Donald Trump.Photo: D Dipasupil/Getty Images
In the midst of an investigation intoDonald Trump’s eponymous company, accounting firm Mazars USA says it will no longer work with the Trump Organization and that a decade’s worth of Trump’s financial statements can no longer be viewed as reliable — a move he is downplaying as overblown.
On Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial dealings, filed a series of documents as part of the case.
Among them was a letter from Mazars, in which the company says financial statements for “Donald J. Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 - June 30, 2020, should no longer be relied upon.”
The accounting firm added that it believes the statements cannot be relied upon based on both the attorney general’s investigation, its own investigation and “information received from internal and external sources.”
From the letter: “Due in part to our decision regarding the financial statements, as well as the totality of the circumstances, we have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization. As a result, we are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”
The letter also notes, however, that the firm has not concluded that the statements “contain material discrepancies.”
The Trump Organization highlighted this in a statement after the Mazars letter was made public.
“While we are disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways, their February 9, 2022 letter confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars' work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies,” a spokesperson for the company told PEOPLE in a statement.
The financial statements in question are being used to determine whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of some of its assets in order to defraud lenders and to boost the Trump brand.
“In light of the pervasive and repeated nature of the misstatements and omissions, it appears that the valuations in the Statements were generally inflated as part of a pattern to suggest that Mr. Trump’s net worth was higher than it otherwise would have appeared,” the document reads.
James has in recent weeks and months been increasing pressure on both Trump and his adult children to cooperate in her civil investigation into the company finances. Trump says he is being politically targeted.
In a statement issued in January, James' office said it filed paperwork to request a judge to force Trump, 75, his sonDonald Trump Jr., 44, and daughterIvanka Trump, 40, to testify.
The family called the probe is baseless and has beenfighting the attemptsto get them to testify.
Trump’s middle son,Eric Trump, who serves as an executive vice president at Trump Organization, was subpoenaed in 2020 andearlier provided his testimony.
James' investigation parallels a separate, criminal probe into the company, which last year led tocharges against a chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.
Weisselberg had worked for the company since 1973,accordingto the Associated Press. TheNew York Timesreported earlierthat he has also helped with Trump’s own tax returns since the 1990s, when he became the CFO.
source: people.com
