In English
So a financial firm cut ties with Trump and retracts financial statement. It’s a fun read.
What Mazars USA is actually saying: This is to inform you that the financial statements we helped prepare for the Trump Organization “in accordance with professional standards” from 2011 to 2020 are pretty much bogus. There is a lawsuit bearing down on us like an oncoming freight train and this is the only off ramp we could think of. Please don’t treat us like you did Arthur Anderson.
Best Valentines Day present ever.
I love this sentence in the letter from Mazars:
“We have come 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,” Kelly wrote in the Wednesday letter, addressed to Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten. “While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate.”
Note how carefully worded that is. They don’t say the financial statements are correct. They say they haven’t “concluded” that the statements “as a whole” contain material discrepancies. That means two things: (1) Parts of the statements do in fact contain material discrepancies, and (2) they haven’t “concluded” it because they haven’t looked and don’t want to.
1Geeze, this is taking too long. If trumpf doesn’t get prosecuted over his fraud and soon it’s a travesty. Unfortunately, the pace of all this is so slow I think he’ll be running for president and any prosecutions will be put on hold so as to not appear political. He’s a goddam crook so get this going already. I can see where Mazars USA is covering their ass. They had to know and are just now coming out? Put ‘em on the witness stand to explain, soon. Make TFG sweat now.
2I’m not fluent in CPA speak, but I offer this rough translation:
“We think you are going to prison, and we would really rather not go there too.”
3I see Erik Trumpf is threatening to go after the NY AG for turning their accounting firm against he and the crime family. Ooh, sounds like a mafia family. What ya going to do Erik?
4Time for all the trumpf creditors to call in their loans. I want to see donald sweat like rudy giuliani at the 4 Seasons only orange instead of brown.
Allow me to translate:
5This is to inform you that the financial statements we helped prepare for the Trump organization “in accordance with professional standards“ from 2011 to 2020 are pretty much bogus.
Their “decisions regarding the financial statements” (at least 525,838 pages of which they have now made available to the D.A) appear to be false because, newsflash Trump lies.
Their references to “the totality of the circumstances,” is a pretty good indication that they’ve had a chat with the DA Tish James and decided that gurl is serious!
Their conclusion that they now have a “non-waivable conflict of interest” is tantamount to saying, “ I don’t know how to break it to you Sparky but we switched sides and we’re on team James!”
As to their ending statement that Mazars is “ not able to provide new work product,” this is legalese for saying it’s pretty obvious to us your goose is cooked and we have zero intention of taking the fall for you.
Accounting firms don’t want clients to throw them under the bus and when they think that’s about to happen they tend to head for the exit. You might’ve noticed that lawyers tend to do the same thing. My guess is Mazars would very much like to avoid being the next Arthur Andersen.
I should add that the above is a distillation of the Twitter-verse comments of people who are way smarter than I am. The snark is mine the analysis is Joyce Alean Vance, Asha Rangappa, Norm Ornstein, Pope Hat and George Conway.
6What is the status of his “IRS Audit”?……..
7OMG!!! Just what I needed to start the day! Snarky chuckling instead of “my back hurts’!
8My husband is a CPA and said that none of the Big 4 accounting firms will touch Trump and his company. Mazar’s is a medium size accounting firm and Trump is going to have a very difficult time hiring a new one.
9One wonders if Mazars required two CPAs in the presence of any Trump or not, like the Trump lawyers. Because you know Mazars would be thrown under the bus instantly if any discrepancies were discovered.
10JDS2017 – I wasn’t aware that one needed an accounting firm’s professional services to account for one’s earnings from the prison laundry… Interesting (said in an Arte Johnson voice)
11Hope that I have too cynical and there really is a hell for you know WHO!
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