Newly uncovered tax documents show Trump ‘kept two sets of books – one for lenders and another for inspectors – and may have committed financial fraud’
- Newly uncovered tax documents from President Donald Trump reveal ‘inconsistencies’ that could point to financial fraud
- ProPublica reviewed documents that saw the numbers on some Trump properties appear more valuable to lenders and less valuable to tax authorities
- One of the filings was made in 2017, after President Trump was already in office
- Two judges have ordered the president to turn over eight years of tax returns
- An employee at the IRS has also blown the whistle on ‘inappropriate efforts to influence’ the audit of Trump’s tax returns
Tax documents relating to President Donald Trump’s returns have been uncovered with experts suggesting they could point to financial fraud.
The documents were obtained by ProPublica and part of records detailing four Trump properties in New York City, namely The Trump International Hotel and Tower, 40 Wall Street, Trump Tower, and 1290 Avenue of the Americas.
The website is claiming that tax records for 40 Wall Street and the Trump International Hotel and Tower contained discrepancies that could raise some concerns.
Newly uncovered tax documents from President Donald Trump reveal ‘inconsistencies’ that could point to financial fraud
The numbers appear to make the properties look more valuable to lenders but less valuable to tax authorities.
‘It really feels like there’s two sets of books, one for lenders and one for tax investigators,’ said Kevin Riordan, a financing expert who reviewed the newly revealed tax records for the outlet.
‘It’s hard to argue numbers,’ Riordan said. ‘That’s black and white.’
ProPublica say that in once instance in 2017, President Trump told a lender he received twice as much rent from one building than he reported to tax authorities.
One professor of finance said that at a very basic level the inconsistencies looked like ‘versions of fraud.’
The documents were part of records detailing four Trump properties in New York City including Trump Tower to make the properties look more valuable to lenders but less valuable to tax authorities
Last year the New York Times reported how Trump managed to use a ‘series of dubious tax schemes’ to shield a $400 million inheritance from the IRS.
As recently as last month, Mother Jones conducted an investigation that found that Trump might have fabricated a loan to avoid paying $50 million in income taxes.
Trump has always insisted that he has not committed any financial or tax crimes stating he is unable to release his tax returns because they are under audit.
There is no specific law that prevents his tax returns from being released, even if being audited.
Last week U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ordered Trump to turn over eight years of his tax returns to New York prosecutors investigating whether he violated state laws by fabricating business records.
The U.S. Court of Appeals has also ordered the president to turn over the past eight years of his returns to the House Oversight Committee.
Trump’s lawyers have stated they are planning to fight both judgments and will take them all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Recently an employee at the IRS recently blew the whistle on ‘inappropriate efforts to influence’ the agency’s audit of Trump’s tax returns.
According to The Washington Post, the person who has been accused of trying to interfere with the audit works at the Treasury Department.
Either way, very few people have access to the Presidents’s returns.
‘The president’s and vice president’s tax returns are kept in a top-secret vault,’ Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Justice Department, told Business Insider.
‘It’s code-word-protected, the whole nine yards, and not just anyone can get in there. There are very few people — the head of the Treasury, the head of the IRS — who have access.’