A letter to the Trump Organization from the accounting firm Mazars USA could exacerbate current legal troubles for former President Donald Trump and his family.
Mazars’s letter, addressed to Trump Organization chief legal officer Alan Garten, notes that Trump’s financial filings over the past decade are no longer reliable. The company further states that it will no longer do business with Trump or the Trump Organization, save for his current tax filings, due to these revelations.
“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,” the letter stated.
“This is a big deal,” a tweet from the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said. “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.”
“It looks like the Trump Organization is in a lot of trouble,” CREW added.
The letter from Mazars was part of a trove of documents submitted in a legal filing on Monday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is conducting an investigation into fraud by Trump and his company. James’s inquiry is examining whether Trump and officials within the Trump Organization (including Trump’s children) inflated the company’s net worth in order to secure huge loans from several banks.
According to reporting from The New York Times, Mazars’s acknowledgment that Trump’s financial statements were unreliable is “a potential blow to the Trump Organization as it attempts to fend off the long-running scrutiny of its finances.”
Mazars reportedly sought to begin transitioning Trump out as a client last spring, but the letter provides the starkest evidence yet that the company had deep concerns over the former president’s current legal troubles. However, several legal experts on social media have suggested that Mazars could also face repercussions if the company had prior knowledge of Trump’s alleged financial misdeeds.
“This is a very carefully drafted letter. Mazars may have some concern about its own exposure [in my opinion],” said Richard Signorelli, a former assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
It’s possible, however, that the company is cooperating with James’s investigation or another investigation looking into Trump’s finances by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Signorelli went on to add that Mazars, in “firing” Trump as a client, “may be turning state’s evidence” on the Trump Organization.
