Former President Donald Trump’s accounting firm, New York-based Mazars USA (FY20 net revenue of $218 million) will not stand behind 10 years of annual financial statements prepared for the Trump Organization, according to court papers quoted by The New York Times.
In a Feb. 9 letter, the firm instructed the Trump Organization to notify anyone who received the 2011-2020 financial statements that they are not reliable. The IPA 100 firm put together the financial statements based on information provided by Trump and his organization.
In its letter, Mazars says it “had not ‘as a whole’ found material discrepancies between the information the Trump Organization provided and the actual value of Mr. Trump’s assets,” the Times reported, but given the “totality of circumstances,” the statements should not be relied upon.
The Mazars letter says its decision was based in part on the findings of a civil investigation by the New York attorney general, the firm’s own investigations and information from “internal and external sources.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James asserts that Trump has routinely inflated the value of his assets. For example, a Trump executive told investigators that the $327-million value of Trump’s penthouse at Trump Towers was overvalued by “give or take” $200 million, the Times reports. Trump is also under criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office on tax charges.
The Trump Organization released in a statement noting that it was disappointed with Mazars’ decision, but adds the letter confirms that “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.”
The letter from Mazars states that the firm “performed its work in accordance with professional standards.”
