David Fahrenthold has dug even dipper into the Trump Foundation scandal finding that the Trump illegally used $258,000 in Foundation money to settle legal disputes.
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Donald Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaire’s for-profit businesses, according to interviews and a review of legal documents.
Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against “self-dealing” — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses.
In one case, from 2007, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club faced $120,000 in unpaid fines from the town of Palm Beach, Fla., resulting from a dispute over the size of a flagpole.
In a settlement, Palm Beach agreed to waive those fines — if Trump’s club made a $100,000 donation to a specific charity for veterans. Instead, Trump sent a check from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a charity funded almost entirely by other people’s money, according to tax records.
Fahrenthold provides a number of examples in the full article which demonstrates an undeniable commingling of funds and improper use of foundation monies. As noted in the article, one tax expert said, “I represent 700 nonprofits a year & I've never encountered anything so brazen.”
The evidence makes it clear: Trump would be the most conflicted and corrupt President in U.S. history.
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2016 · 1:21:02 AM +00:00 · igualdad
NYT has finally published a story on this:
The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, who regulates charities in the state, said last week that he was looking into the foundationto see whether it was in compliance with state laws. His office declined to comment on Tuesday about whether it would look into the donations tied to Mr. Trump’s business disputes.
Legal experts said the foundation’s donations in connection with litigation involving Mr. Trump’s personal businesses may have violated tax regulations that prohibit using nonprofit charities for private interests.
“That’s way across the line,” said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in nonprofit and tax law. “It’s not even close. It’s clearly self-dealing for a private foundation like the Trump Foundation.”
Mr. Mayer said he was surprised about the amount of money involved in the Trump expenditures. “I haven’t seen numbers this large before,” he said.