If you’re referring to scenario 1, the canceled $1 million debt represents taxable income for B–but of course B in effect avoids paying tax on it because he has donated the sum to the foundation and can deduct it as a charitable contribution.
We can take some pleasure in knowing that after the election when trump will again be a private citizen he’s going to stand trial for racketeering in his role at TrumpU. Moreover, NY AG Schneiderman has said he’s going to be looking into (being very discreet in his public statements at this point) the Trump Foundation. But before anyone suggests Clinton should question trump in a future debate about his foundation, I’d imagine she won’t only because anything he might say could be used against him in a court of law. h/t Law and Order
8 Likes
Good sleuthing! I notice that Trump’s contributions to health and educational causes (while I’m sure they were appreciated) were pretty small for a guy who calls himself a “multibillionaire.” Oh, except for that $100,000 contribution… to the Citizen’s United lobbying firm.
I also noted that the form asks whether Trump’s foundation paid “… any amount to influence the outcome of any specific public election…” The auditor responded “No.” Yet when did the Bondi contribution occur? And if it was in a different FY, was that question answered truthfully?
A couple of other observations:
The biggest contributor by far was Richard Ebers Inside Sports & Entertainment Group, of NY, which gave $477,400. Wow.
Second, I see that Trump uses a rather modest-sized accounting and auditing firm on Long Island rather than a major firm in the city. I wonder why that is? Could it be that his business is more important to a modest sized firm?
3 Likes
I’d have to agree with others that what Farenthold has done is remarkable, took a lot of time and patience if only because he must have met with stonewalling and non cooperation from many of his sources, and Farenthold has gone back many years. The only scandal at all comparable which ultimately had a satisfactory ending was Watergate. The break-in was in June 1972, and Nixon resigned in August 1974. In between there were Congressional hearings, Woodstein was on the case as we know, but it changed politics as we knew it. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. MLK
7 Likes
Yes! and someday maybe (in our dreams of course) Trump & Christie will share a cell at Rikers. Their raging conversations would be the stuff of playwrights.
1 Like
So imagine this. (All names are of course fictitious and hypothetical.)
Flimflam Enterprises provides a service for Old Buddy Inc., worth $1M, but directs Old Buddy to cut the check to the Flimflam Foundation instead. Old Buddy takes a deduction for charitable donation, Flimflam Enterprises reports no taxable income on the transaction.
Flimflam Enterprises then settles a lawsuit with Swampland Acres by promising to donate $1M to the Swampland Benevolent Association, but the money actually comes from the Flimflam Foundation.
(Extra bonus credit for chutzpah if Flimflam Enterprises ALSO takes a tax credit for this charitable donation!)
The Swampland Benevolent Association then holds its gala dinner at the Grand Flimflam Hotel, using some of that $1M to pay above-market rates to Flimflam Enterprises.
It’s like a perpetual motion machine for money!
Everyone wins … well, except for the regular taxpayers who aren’t “smart” enough to pull this kind of scam. But what they don’t know won’t hurt us, right?
7 Likes
It is a big deal if he doesn’t pay income taxes on it! That’s tax evasion. But since we don’t have those pesky tax returns…
2 Likes
I work for a 501c3 non-profit, and our Director has check-signing privileges. If he wrote a check to cover a personal need of his own, rather than an organizational need, and it were found out, he would be facing criminal charges of embezzlement (or grand larceny or whatever the technical category was) for stealing money from the organization. This is Trump’s situation with regard to using TF founds to settle his personal obligations (which were not legal obligations of the foundation).
4 Likes
Good points. As to why WeiserMazars, could just be that Trump was already using this firm for his real estate business. That actually seems likely to me.
According to Fahrenthold, it is definitely looking that way. Indeed, the guy the Trump campaign as now assigned to deal with Fahrenthold (and simply assigning someone shows that this is getting the scared), basically said as much in his latest interview.
Which is…pretty much beyond any gall marker anyone wants to make. To not only use the foundation to buy vanity crap…but to then turn around and BILL the foundation for him keeping the vanity crap.
@ncsteve And that part that really frustrates me, is not just that this has been out there so one guy with a little determination and effort could easily find…just imagine how much stuff if out there on ALL of his businesses. This IS how he approaches every business deal. And yet, nobody even bothers to look. Or, when they do in a cursory manner (Eichenwald’s piece last week, or the pieces on Deutsche Bank) its ignored by everyone else and they go off down another hole after another rabbit.
9 Likes
OK, you’ve got the kernel for a script. Is Mel Brooks still working?
2 Likes
Ok, and let’s add one more layer:
Let’s imagine that the largest single contributor to this “Foundation” has put, say, $1.9 million into this “charity.” And that the business of this contributor is “Corporate Hospitality, Event Management, and Marketing.” And let’s consider how much the “Mah Ego Itsa Largo Resort” consumes in Corporate Hospitality, Event Management and Marketing, especially during a busy Campaign Season. Wow, wouldn’t THAT put the contributor in a great position? I mean, you could write your own checks at that point! Oh wait. Well, nobody’s alleging anything, but how sad would that be?
4 Likes
Yes I knew that in our reality, but who knows if Enron is still a viable company in the Trump Bizzaro world?
I think trump knew exactly what he was doing with regard to his foundation. Not just that, he has bragged he has great lawyers to advise him on the foundation and on his taxes. I think he chose deliberately and over the years since at least 1978 to do things financially that he knew were illegal and ethically wrong. I await his perp walk into court and/or jail.
Edit
He used the foundation as a way to avoid paying income taxes. And he has the gall to think of himself as patriotic and one who has made sacrifices for our country. My family has served. My fsther in ww2, …2 close relatives in combat in Vietnam, Mrs darr is a Navy vet. But Donnie did go to a military high school i hear. That a sacrifice?
Everything about trump tells me he’d be a disaster in office
4 Likes
Which is why I’m suggesting that scenario is worse.
that’s the question
first things first
A Washington Post expose on Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump’s charitable foundation revealed big donations from Vince & Linda McMahon in 2007 and 2009 - the years he worked a WrestleMania hair vs. hair angle and “bought” Raw - seemingly confirming Trump was paid for his appearances with gifts to his charity.
Now I remember the Raw angle (though it was what it was) and I barely remember the Wrestlemania angle (outside of Vince catching a haircut for his troubles).
I found this tweet on Farenthold’s Twitter feed
here’s the story link and here is Linda’s response to that inquiry.
McMahon and her husband contributed a total of $5 million to Trump’s foundation in 2007, a donation McMahon said she did “not remember how it came about.” She said she has no misgivings about making the contribution, ultimately the largest to Trump’s foundation.
again the ‘rag sheets’ are claiming that Trump didn’t collect a check for appearing at Mania or that Raw control plotline, so something is fishy…
forgot about that blurb link, sorry.
5 Likes
Big donations TOO trump’s foundation. Any information on charity ‘giving’? Or did the foundation keep it all? Did they do any charitable work with their money? Yeah they funneled other peoples cash and took credit… but did trump and his foundation do any actual giving?
My point is that it’s pretty much a wash:
-
Trump gets paid $1m and makes a donation of $1m to the Foundation. No tax due by Trump as the $1m income is offset by the $1m donation (except if he exceeds the limit of 30% of his AGI to a private foundation).
-
Donation is made directly to the Foundation.
Now if by chance Trump really has very little taxable income - say his AGI is under $1 million - then maybe he would hit the 30% limit and this would indeed constitute a tax dodge.
Definitely projection. A trademark of a sociopath or narcissist. I had the misfortune of dating one for several years, and without fail, all of the abusive (emotionally/mentally for the most part) shit she would do to me, she would accuse me of doing. It was insane! He’s textbook.
1 Like