Former Republican President Donald Trump's accounting firm has let go of its longtime client, saying financial statements it provided for nearly a decade were unreliable, leaked court documents show. Monday February 14.

Last week, Mazars Group informed the Trump Organization in a letter that it would no longer work for the company, which is under investigation for possible tax evasion.

The document was presented to the court by State's Attorney Letitia James, who asked a judge to compel Donald Trump to comply with invitations to testify as part of the investigation.

Letitia James announced last month that her team had uncovered evidence of fraud, including fraudulent asset valuation.

According to Mazars, the prosecutor's findings led her to consider that Trump's accounting for the year ending June 30, 2011 to that ending June 30, 2020 "should no longer be considered reliable."

The firm added that its own investigation and "information received from internal and external sources" also weighed in its choice.

15 counts

"While we have not concluded that the various balance sheets, taken together, contained any material irregularities, given the circumstances, we believe that our advice to no longer rely on these financial records is warranted," the letter said.

Partly as a result of this decision, Mazars "is no longer able to supply any new product to the Trump Organization", it still reads.

These financial statements are at the center of Letitia James' investigation, and another, criminal, led by the Manhattan prosecutor.

The Trump Organization is suspected of overstating the value of certain properties when applying for loans from banks and undervaluing those same properties to the taxman in order to pay less tax.

Last July, the Trump Organization and its trusted accountant, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty in a New York court to 15 counts of fraud and tax evasion.

The Manhattan district attorney's office received multi-year tax returns from Mazars in January after a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

For Donald Trump, the two investigations are motivated by political objectives.

The Trump Organization expressed its "disappointment" after the decision of the Mazars group, in a press release Monday evening.

But the letter from the accounting firm proves, according to her, that "the work of Mazars was carried out in accordance with all applicable accounting rules and principles" and that these financial statements "do not contain any material anomalies".

The investigations carried out in New York are thus “useless”, affirms the company of Donald Trump.

With AFP

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