Former president Donald Trump’s longtime accounting firm informed his company last week that a decade’s worth of Trump’s financial statements “should no longer be relied upon” and suggested that any recipient of the documents be alerted, according to a copy of the letter filed in New York court filings.
In the letter, Mazars executive William J. Kelly voiced new concerns about the statements, which the firm helped Trump prepare and which have come under scrutiny recently by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). James has alleged in civil filings that Trump used the statements to inflate the value of his properties and misstated his personal worth in representations to lenders.
Kelly said Mazars reconsidered its work on the documents following questions raised by James’s office in a January filing.
“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.”
Since at least 2002, accountant Donald Bender, a Mazars executive, has helped prepare Trump’s financial statements. In many instances, his firm attached a cover letter to the front of the documents explaining the firm’s role in assessing the value of his assets.
But in its letter last week, the accounting firm also cut off its relationship with the former president’s company, joining other banks, law firms and consulting firms that have vowed to no longer do business with the Trump Organization. In the letter, Kelly said a “non-waivable conflict of interest” prevented the firm from continuing to work for Trump.
The Mazars letter also mentioned one piece of tax business that it has said was unresolved regarding an apartment of Matthew Calamari Jr., son of longtime Trump security director and chief operating officer Matthew Calamari Sr.
Calamari Jr. was called to testify last year in a separate criminal case being brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and James regarding an alleged tax fraud scheme in which employees allegedly received untaxed payments, cars and apartments.
In the letter, Mazars said the Trump Organization did not, after repeated requests, provide information regarding Calamari’s apartment (and misspelled Calamari’s last name).
“We believe the only information left to complete those returns is the information regarding the Matt Calimari Jr. apartment,” Kelly wrote. “As you know, Donald Bender has been asking for this information for several months but has not received it.”
Kelly also said the company still needed to file returns for Trump and former first lady Melania Trump.
The Trump Organization issued a statement in response: “While we are disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways, their February 9, 2022 letter confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies. This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot.”
Mazars issued a statement saying that it was legally unable to discuss client relationships and that the firm remains “committed to fulfilling all of our professional and legal obligations.”
An attorney for the Calamaris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
James disclosed the letter Monday as part of her pursuit of testimony and documents that Trump’s company has been unwilling to provide. Her office has combed through his statements from 2004 to 2020 and discovered numerous discrepancies between the actual condition of his properties and his assertions about them in the statements, according to the January filing.
Trump’s company allegedly provided statements to banks and insurers that included incorrect or misleading information on his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, N.Y.; his triplex in Trump Tower; his Scotland golf resort; his Westchester golf club; Trump Park Avenue in Manhattan; and his 40 Wall Street office building.
James also alleged that the Trump Organization provided statements including inaccurate statements to the IRS and the General Services Administration, which holds the federal lease to Trump’s D.C. hotel. James’s office also subpoenaed records from the GSA.
James is also a partner in the long-running criminal investigation now overseen by recently sworn-in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) — a relationship that Trump and two of his adult children have pointed to as proof that evidence collected in the civil case can easily be shared with criminal investigators.
Eric Trump, the president’s son who now largely oversees the family’s company, and lawyers for the Trumps have said James has demonstrated a political bias, including in statements she made on the campaign trail and in other public appearances. James has denied any bias in court filings.
James issued a statement Monday saying that “the evidence continues to mount showing that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain economic benefit.”
