… former federal judge Barbara Jones, the court-appointed special monitor in Donald Trump’s New York business fraud case, just planted a financial bombshell that legal experts say suggests Trump lied knowingly and repeatedly on his federal financial disclosures about a major loan that never existed—and may have evaded taxes on $48 million in income.
Former federal Judge Barbara Jones wrote in a letter to Judge Engoron as she was charged with making a complete picture of the Trump Organization’s finances. Footnote 6 is the interesting one here:
She writes:
“When I inquired about this loan, I was informed that there are no loan agreements that memorialize the loan, but that it was a loan that was believed to be between Donald J. Trump, individually, and Chicago Unit Acquisition for $48 million,” Jones wrote, referencing the name of Trump’s LLC that held his debt.
“However, in recent discussions with the Trump Organization, it indicated that it has determined that this loan never existed—and thus that it would be removed from any upcoming forms submitted to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and would also be removed from subsequent versions of [corporate financial statements],” Jones wrote.
Thus, TFG may have avoided income taxes by applying money to this (fake?) personal loan (or forgiving it, which must also be counted as income), but did so repeatedly in many disclosures over a period of years.
Donald Trump’s massive debts—he owes hundreds of millions of dollars—are the subject of continuous congressional and journalistic scrutiny. But for years, one Trump loan has been particularly mystifying: a debt of more than $50 million that Trump claims he owes to one of his own companies. According to tax and financial experts, the loan, which Trump has never fully explained, might be part of a controversial tax avoidance scheme known as debt parking. Yet a Mother Jones investigation has uncovered information that raises questions about the very existence of this loan, presenting the possibility that this debt was concocted as a ploy to evade income taxes—a move that could constitute tax fraud.
He has repeatedly claimed in financial disclosures that he owes more than $50M to a company called Chicago Unit Acquisition LLC, a Delaware company that he owns. However the offsetting entry in CUA’s books that would indicate that there is actually a loan is not there.
On the periphery of this loan is Deutsche Bank (remember them? whom he sued, because why not?) and also the financial crisis in 2008 in which he lost a lot of money. Loan forgiveness is also featured in this scheme and it’s worth the read.
As summarized in Mother Jones:
To recap: Trump claims he bought a debt related to his Chicago venture, but neither of the two loans associated with this property appear to have been purchased. The Deutsche Bank loan was refinanced. The Fortress debt, according to sources with knowledge of the transaction, was canceled. And this raises a question: Did Trump create a bogus loan to evade a whopping tax bill on about $48 million of income?
Time to re-read Judge Barbara Jones’ analysis. There is definitely smoke here.
The next question is what did former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin know during this timeframe?