The Trump Organization’s longtime accounting firm no longer believes it can vouch for the company’s financial statements, according to a new court filing.
Mazars general counsel William J. Kelly wrote to Trump Organization senior legal officer Alan Garten, stating that assertions about Trump’s financial status from 2011 through 2020 “should no longer be relied upon.”
Mazars reached this determination, according to Kelly, “in part, based on the filings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources.”
Furthermore, Kelly notified Garten that Mazars will be unable to “supply any new work product to the Trump Organization” due to “a non-waivable conflict of interest” with the firm as a result of the misleading representations made in the documents about Trump’s finances.
Finally, Kelly stated that Mazars would “do everything reasonably possible” to make the transfer to your new tax preparers as painless as possible.
The declaration was made public in new court records filed on Monday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has been investigating whether Trump used misleading financial statements to cheat lenders with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
James used the letter in a motion to compel the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and others to cooperate with subpoenas for documents and testimony before a state judge.
“While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based on the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,” Mazars said in its letter to Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s top lawyer.
Last month, James’ agency informed a judge that its investigators had found evidence that Trump’s company used “fraudulent or deceptive” asset values to obtain loans and tax breaks.
The New York attorney general’s office used Mazars’ statements to claim, among other things, that the firm misrepresented the size of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse, claiming it was nearly 30,000 sq ft, nearly three times its actual size, and inflated the value of Trump golf clubs in Westchester County, New York, and Scotland.
Trump’s former personal attorney and ex-vice-president of the Trump Organization, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress in 2019 that Trump inflated his assets on a frequent basis.
“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.
This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot,” a Trump spokesperson said.
