Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

And the downfall continues...

Trump Org's longtime accountants sever ties and warn ex-president's financial statements can't be trusted



An explosive new court filing shows that the Trump Organization's longtime accounting firm no longer believes it can vouch for the company's financial statements.

In a letter sent to Trump Organization chief legal officer Alan Garten, Mazars general counsel William J. Kelly states that statements about Trump's financial condition ranging from the years 2011 through 2020 "should no longer be relied upon."

Kelly went on to explain that Mazars came 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."

What's more, Kelly informed Garten that Mazars will not be "able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization" because the false claims made in the documents about Trump's finances have created "a non-waivable conflict of interest" with the company.

In conclusion, Kelly said that Mazars would "do everything reasonably possible to facilitate a smooth transition to your new tax preparers."

Read the full letter below:

AG James’ office has submitted a court filing Re Trump case that includes a letter from his company’s accounting firm saying nearly a decade worth of financial statements can no longer be relied upon.



https://www.rawstory.com/mazars-trump/

[Rick Plant]

So gleeful to arrest ordinary people and lock them up.  Even Canadian truckers are "neo-nazis."  LOL.  A great Stasi-like tactic for losing elections. Keep it up until November!  The red tsunami is coming.

Just like in 2018 and 2020, right Richard? Where was your "tsunami"? Yeah, all 81 million plus who voted against Criminal Donald are going to turn around and vote for the fascist GOP party who is protecting him. So absurd.  

The "ordinary people" line is Russian propaganda which is being pushed in the right wing media. Hate groups and neo nazis are not "ordinary people".

Swastikas, other hate symbols displayed at Canadian protest against COVID mandates
Journalists say they were subject to hate speech and violence while reporting on ‘Freedom Convoy’ rally in Ottawa
https://www.timesofisrael.com/swastikas-other-hate-symbols-displayed-at-canadian-protest-against-covid-mandates/

In case you haven't noticed, the right wing Conservative Party in Canada and the Republican Party in America has lost their elections because the overwhelming majority of Americans and Canadians oppose their fascism.     

The overwhelming majority of Americans approve of mandates and these fake right wing funded "convoys" just make more people angry. These right wingers never learn. 

Rick omitted this from his tireless campaign to lock everyone up - what is known as spying on the U.S. President (an actual treasonable offence):

Wash. Times:

"Special counsel John Durham alleged in a court filing Saturday that the Clinton campaign paid for a tech company to hack servers in former President Donald Trump’s residences and the White House to gather derogatory information on him during the 2016 campaign and while he was president.

In the filing, Mr. Durham says the government has evidence that an unnamed tech executive “exploited” an arrangement with the government to monitor Mr. Trump’s internet traffic at Trump Tower, Mr. Trump’s Central Park West apartment, the executive office of the president and an unnamed healthcare provider."

Another Durham nothingburger. Funny how that nonsense dropped as an attempt to distract from the fact Criminal Donald and his crime family are on their way to being indicted by New York State. NY AG Tish James is closing in fast.    

This is huge!

Accounting Firm Drops Trump Organization Over Dubious Financial Docs
The Trump Organization's longtime accounting firm Mazars said it no longer wants Trump's business, as it doesn't trust the financial documents the Trump Org has given them



The Trump Organization’s trusted outside accounting firm has taken the unprecedented step of ditching its client, explaining that the former president’s family company has a decade of financial statements that can’t be trusted.

The bombshell move by Mazars USA—the accounting firm that has long worked with former President Donald Trump’s family and friends—was revealed in court filings in New York on Monday.

The decision to drop Trump follows last month’s aggressive move by New York Attorney General Letitia James to publicly file documents detailing accounts of what it called “significant evidence” of financial fraud.

The AG’s office is in the midst of two similar investigations of the Trump empire: A civil lawsuit exploring potential bank fraud by the company, and a joint criminal probe with the Manhattan District Attorney into alleged tax dodging and financial fraud.

While the criminal case is proceeding quietly before a grand jury in New York City, Monday’s revelations stem from the AG’s civil lawsuit, which seeks to force Trump and two of his adult children to testify about business dealings.

In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the U.S. branch of the global accounting firm Mazars told the company that “the statements of financial condition for Donald J. Trump” ranging between 2011 and 2020 “should no longer be relied upon and you should inform any recipients thereof… that those documents should not be relied upon.” The firm explained that the decision was made in light of the AG’s revelations as well as “our own investigation.”

The letter goes on to sever all future business ties. “We have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization,” Mazars wrote. “As a result, we are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”

The AG’s office, which got a hold of the letter, filed it in court to bolster its case that Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Don Jr. should be forced to testify about how so many family real estate development projects and properties had wildly fluctuating values that seemed high whenever they needed loans but low whenever it came time to pay taxes.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter also alluded to another matter that criminal investigators reviewed with the Manhattan DA's office: A Trump building apartment in New York City that was provided to Matt Calamari Jr.—a family insider who is now the corporate director of security.

Junior, the son of Trump Organization COO Matthew Calamari Sr., received immunity from a criminal prosecution when he testified before the grand jury investigating company benefits—such as corporate apartments—that may have run afoul of taxing laws, according to a source with direct knowledge of his testimony.

In the firm's Feb. 9 letter, Mazars general counsel William J. Kelly described how accountants had not yet been able to finish preparing the tax paperwork for the former president and first lady, Melania, because they hadn't answered questions about Calamari Jr.'s fringe benefits.

"We believe the only information left to complete those returns is the information regarding the Matt Calimari Jr. apartment. As you know, Donald Bender has been asking for this information for several months but has not received it," Kelly wrote.

Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars, has served as the trusted accountant for Trump and his lieutenants for years, a role that has since drawn scrutiny from law enforcement, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of the transactions and current investigations.

Mazars has found itself in the spotlight since at least 2016, when Trump successfully ran for president but broke with tradition and refused to disclose his tax returns. The firm successfully protected Trump’s tax returns from seeing the light of day, receiving widespread rebuke in the process. And the precedent-establishing Supreme Court fight that ultimately handed those tax documents to the Manhattan DA—but not Congress—bears the firm’s name.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/accounting-firm-mazars-drops-trump-organization-over-dubious-financial-docs

[Rick Plant]

Trump is free fallin'.

Mazars letter 'amounts to a declaration' that Trump 'repeatedly misled' them about finances: legal expert



The longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization on Monday announced that it was severing ties with the former president's company, while also stating that it no longer believes it can vouch for the company's financial statements.

Attorney Luppe Luppen has written up an analysis of the Mazars letter, and he believes that Mazars is indicating it believes that the Trump Organization engaged in financial fraud.

"The determination by Mazars that Trump’s financial statements over a full decade are not reliable through no fault of its own amounts to a declaration that it has been repeatedly misled by its client," he writes.

Luppen also notes that suddenness of the decision shows that Mazars believed it had to act with haste to sever ties from Trump.

"Mazars informed Garten that it wouldn’t be able to complete some tax returns on behalf of the former president and his wife that are due tomorrow," he explains. "According to the date on the letter, February 9, it only gave the Trumps six days to find substitute accountants to finish the job on time."

And finally, Luppen draws attention to a curious detail in the Mazars letter that explain why it has taken so long to make its decision to sever ties.

"Mazars chalked up the delay in preparing these returns... to some unspecified information about what it called 'the Matt Calimari Jr. apartment' that it had been asking for over a period of months and had never received," he writes. "The Trump Org’s security chief is Matthew Calimari, and he and his son reportedly oversee the vast surveillance apparatus at the former president’s commercial properties."

Read the whole analysis here:

https://www.nycsouthpaw.com/p/mazars-noisily-fires-trump

[Rick Plant]

Mazars letter is 'the most calamitous thing that could happen' to Trump: George Conway

Lawyer and Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway is weighing in on the recent news that former President Donald Trump's longtime accounting firm has divorced him.

In a letter that was dated Feb. 9, 2022, Mazars USA made it clear that financial statements related to the former president should no longer been seen as reliable.

According to Conway, "having your financial statements (let alone 10 years worth!) pulled by your accountants is just about the most calamitous thing that could happen... other than perhaps being indicted."

"The determination by Mazars that Trump’s financial statements over a full decade are not reliable, through no fault of its own, amounts to a declaration that it has been repeatedly misled by its client," wrote legal commentator Lupe B. Luppen.


Tax firm Mazars fires Trump Organization as client, says former president’s financial statements are unreliable

The accounting firm Mazars has fired the Trump Organization as a client after saying that a decade’s worth of statements of ex-President Donald Trump’s financial condition “should no longer be relied upon,” the New York Attorney General’s office revealed in a court filing.

Mazars, which for years prepared Trump’s income tax returns, informed the Trump Organization’s top lawyer Alan Garten of that move and conclusion in a letter last Wednesday.

The letter was cited by AG Letitia James’ office on Monday as it asked a state judge to order the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr. and his sister Ivanka Trump, and others to comply with subpoenas seeking documents and testimony.

Attorney General Letitia James’ office has been investigating how the Trump Organization valued certain real estate assets in applications for loans, insurance policies, and tax-related issues.

The accounting firm Mazars has fired the Trump Organization as a client after saying that a decade’s worth of statements of ex-President Donald Trump’s financial condition “should no longer be relied upon,” the New York Attorney General’s office revealed in a court filing Monday.

Mazars, which for years prepared Trump’s income tax returns and financial statements used to obtain loans for his company, told the Trump Organization’s top lawyer Alan Garten that it would no longer represent the company due to the lack of reliability of the financial statements in a letter last Wednesday.

The letter was cited by AG Letitia James’ office on Monday as it asked a state judge to order the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr. and his sister Ivanka Trump, and others to comply with subpoenas seeking documents and testimony.

James for several years has been investigating how the Trump Organization valued certain real estate assets in applications for loans, insurance policies, and tax-related issues.

Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has told Congress that the company manipulated the value of those assets depending on the circumstance to obtain better financial terms and to lower its tax obligations.

James’ office said last month that it had determined that statements of Trump’s financial condition described his valuation process “in broad terms and in ways which were often inaccurate or misleading when compared with the supporting data and documentation that the Trump Organization submitted to its accounting firm.”

Those statements were prepared by Mazars based on information provided by the Trump Organization.

Mazars told Garten in Wednesday’s letter that he should inform any recipients that the statements of Trump’s financial condition for 2011 through 2020 “should not be relied upon.”

The firm told Garten that its conclusion was based on filings made by the AG’s office, “our own investigation,” and other information from different parties.

“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 Garten.

Mazars also said in its letter that it would no longer “provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”

The firm said it based on its decision about the past work’s reliability, “as well as the totality of circumstances, we have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization.”

Mazars said that as of the writing of the letter, “there are only a limited number of tax returns that still remain to be filed, including those of Donald J. Trump and Melania Trump. We will be providing you a list of those returns and their status towards completion separately.”

“The due date to file those returns is February 15, 2022,” Mazars said.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into the issues that James is eyeing in her civil probe.

The DA’s office last year obtained Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns dating to 2011 after a years-long fight by the former president to block a subpoena for those and other documents from Mazars.

Garten did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

A Trump Organization spokesperson, in a statement to NBC News, said, “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,” the spokesperson said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/14/trump-tax-firm-says-documents-not-reliable.html

[Rick Plant]

Mazars revelations could make Trump the 'poster-child' for high-profile tax cheating: former US Attorney



Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, New York Times investigative reporter David Fahrenthold and former federal prosecutor and current law school professor Joyce White Vance explained the details behind the recent divorce between Donald Trump and his accounting firm Mazars USA.

Fahrenthold explained that the financial reports from Mazars were basically a kind of verification that Trump was as rich as he claimed to be and that these reports were often used to convince bankers to give him hefty loans.

"One of the important things is that they're going to have to prove intent," said Fahrenthold. "If Trump misrepresented something about himself or his assets or the lenders, you know, that it was wrong he was misrepresenting something. And without getting in his head how do you prove that? One way you might prove that is by showing the gatekeepers. He lied to the people that represented him in the outside world. The lawyers, the appraisers, the accountants. And they've gone after all three in this case, but the accountants are the most important. They're the ones that had the most documents, knew the most, spoke the most in the context that matters."

MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Vance how prosecutors are able to determine whether Trump's false claims in his filings were simply mistakes or outright fraud.

Vance said that it could help prosecutors if there are particularly egregious differences in certain valuations -- and she cited the Seven Springs property in Westchester County, New York, where someone told Trump they were valuing the property between $29 and $50 million.

"They turned around and told Mazars that it was worth $161 million," Vance continued. "So, if this all holds up there is some insight into the sorts of internal and external documents that Mazars has now seen, and it's caused them to take this step. The bottom line here is this, there may be something to suggest it was a legitimate business practice as you point out. If not legitimate at least the banks did not rely on these documents too much. That they knew that the puffery was going on. But when it comes to filing taxes you cannot make that argument... one of the focuses in U.S. Attorney's offices around the country is prosecuting people who are in positions of trust who cheat on their taxes. Well, this is the poster-child case."

See the discussion below:

[Rick Plant]

The Trump Mazars scandal is the kind of problem that could end the company or put someone in jail: biographer



Donald Trump was dropped by his financial firm, Mazars USA. This is expected to cause a severe problem for Donald Trump Jr. and Melania Trump, as their tax documents were supposed to be filed on Feb. 15, 2022.

Speaking to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, former Trump biographer Tim O'Brien noted that problems like this are the kinds of things that can lead to businesses being closed or prison time.

O'Donnell mentioned the son of Trump Org. security chief Matthew Calamari, who had an apartment gifted to him. In the Mazars letter, they claimed the Trump Organization did not, "after repeated requests, provide information regarding Calamari’s apartment (and misspelled Calamari’s last name)," the Washington Post reported. The apartment must be accounted for because it's valued at over $15,000. It's unclear if it was a gift or it was being paid for by Trump as an expense.

“We believe the only information left to complete those returns is the information regarding the Matt Calimari Jr. [sic] apartment,” Mazars' executive William J. Kelly wrote. “As you know, Donald Bender has been asking for this information for several months but has not received it.”

"And what the Mazars is saying is they believe they won't get the answer," said O'Brien. "I think what we can infer from that is that they believe that Trump is either willingly misleading them or lying to them, the whatever the case may be, they don't want to represent him anymore. These issues of free apartments for employees in the Trump Organization was front and center with Allen Weisselberg's indictment. And some other things investigators were looking at there. The Weisselberg children also got free bees from the Trump Organizations. It's relatively small in the larger scheme of things, but it's enough to put people in the crosshairs and enough to potentially cause some of these people to flip against Trump and provide further evidence, and it's clearly enough for his accounting firm to head for the exits."

He went on to say that what he found interesting was what took the Mazars so long because all of these issues were published in O'Brien's book years ago. Trump sued O'Brien and used a Mazars' document to prove his finances. In that case, they said that the documents "didn't pass the sniff test for accounting documents, but they would stand behind them."

It has been 15 years since then, and now the Mazars are pulling back because of the New York attorney general's investigation.

"I think the firm is worried about its own criminal exposure and civil exposure in this investigations, and they're not going to go down with Donald Trump. If it comes to that," O'Brien continued. "And I think this is a very put a pivotal moment because even if these prosecutions don't play out, this is a real threat to the well-being of the business. If the Trumps cannot get accountants to sign off on their financial statements, there is no bank that is going to be willing to do business with them. At least domestically."

O'Brien explained that the Mazars aren't going to take the fall for Trump over an apartment gifted to Calamari's son if that was the case.

"They have finally had enough. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and all of it," he said. "And these are the kind of wedges that open the door. A crime is a crime regardless of the amount of money involved in it. And I think that they have to be running in circles right now inside the Trump Organization, given what's occurred today. This is going to end up being one of those pivotal days if we look back on these investigations, that they end up getting the kind of traction that causes the company to go out of business or winds up with any of the trumps in jail. It's going to be moments like this that are going to be part of that narrative."

See the full conversation below:

[Rick Plant]

Donnie and his crime family is about to be indicted.

New filing suggests Trump accounting firm 'has now flipped' in NY fraud probe: MSNBC analyst



Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" walked through the latest developments in the fraud investigation into the Trump Organization by the New York attorney general's office.

The accounting firm Mazars USA essentially renounced a decade's worth of financial statements they made for Donald Trump's family-owned business, saying they could no longer be viewed as reliable, and NBC News correspondent Tom Winter explained the significance of the move.

"This is not a good development," Winter said. "Every single expert we have spoken with has said it is not something that is normal, it is highly unusual that they would send a letter like this."

"They said they had their internal investigation and received information from inside the company and outside the company that led to them making this decision," Winter added. "They said they have a non-waiveable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization, which could be a potential problem saying no, the Trumps can't waive this here, this isn't a conflict of interest. They said the conflict of interest is on their side of things, [and] as a result they made the statement. The letter was sent on Feb. 9 and then provided to the attorney general, and that's why we're able to see it today."

Winter said it's unclear why Mazars could no longer stand by the statements, saying it's not known whether they prepared fraudulent documents or whether someone else doctored the documents to inflate or deflate the value of real estate holdings.

"It is the right question and probably too soon to say," Winter said. "Accountants will tell you they're only as good as the information they're provided, so if they were provided with the wrong types of information [or] they were not provided with the underlying documentation or somebody instructed them to make material changes to it, those are all the types of things we will have to see what comes out in the course of these various investigations that you referenced. "

MSNBC's John Heilemann wondered whether the accounting firm had turned into a witness against Trump and his family.

"Well, the document that they released last night, if I read that document right, suggests that the accounting firm has already provided over 500,000 pieces of documentation," Heilemann said, "which means there's 525,000 at minimum, which is a very large number. The second thing is that -- and this I'll ask you, Tom. I saw some speculation from other legal experts last night that the conflict of interest could suggest that the accounting firm has now flipped basically and is working, is cooperating actively with the investigations, that's why they realized they were in trouble. They don't want to go for jail for Donald Trump or face huge civil penalties and they're now all in on the civil and [district attorney's] criminal procedures, investigations."