NEW YORK — Documents detailing Donald Trump’s financial health between 2011 and 2020 can “no longer be relied upon,” the former president’s own accounting firm wrote in a letter made public Monday.
The revelation comes amid criminal and civil investigations into whether Trump, his family and his company broke the law by routinely inflating the value of Trump Org properties across the globe to obtain favorable loans, tax deductions, insurance coverage and other economic perks.
The accounting firm, Mazars USA, said it would no longer do any new work for the Trump Organization or Trump himself. It said it concluded Trump’s “statements of financial condition” could not be trusted in part due to the investigation by State Attorney General Letitia James.
Last month, James’ office filed court papers detailing an array of alleged lies in the Trump Organization empire, from the size of Trump’s luxury Manhattan penthouse to the value of golf clubs in Los Angeles and Scotland.
“We write to advise that the Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 - June 30, 2020, should no longer be relied upon and you should inform any recipients thereof who are currently relying upon one or more of those documents that those documents should not be relied upon,” Mazars lawyer William Kelly wrote to Trump Organization on Feb. 9.
“We have come to this conclusion based, in part, upon the filings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources,” he added.
The AG’s office submitted the letter in court as it seeks to force Trump and his family to comply with demands for documents and testimony.
“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,” Kelly wrote in the letter.
The letter could spell big financial trouble for Trump. During the period covered by the financial statements, Trump secured loans for a number of major projects, including Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C., and the Doral golf resort in Miami.
Assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace wrote that the Mazars letter “vindicated” the AG’s ongoing probe.
James opened her investigation in 2018 after Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, testified before Congress about the ex-president’s business practices.
James has not yet filed a civil lawsuit against Trump. The Manhattan DA’s office is conducting a separate criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances.
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