By now you’ve heard that the state of New York is suing Donald Trump and his kids for “persistent illegal activity.” What you may not have heard – yet, are the details as to the specific allegations, allegations which are near self-proving in their nature, and devastating. If a billionaire CEO of Goldman Sachs, Exxon or Coke-Cola faced such a suit, they would have been forced to resign that day.
True, a lawsuit is nothing more than an allegation. However, some lawsuits are filed as “Verified Complaints” – which, in essence, means that the person or entity bringing the suit, is not merely bringing allegations, but swearing to the truth of the statements contained within, including accompanying documentation – which was included within the Trump suit. In Trump’s case, the documentation included copies of checks, hand-written notes, and other “near impossible to refute” evidence. This is no nuisance suit, nor a personal or political vendetta. There are two scandals brought about by this suit, one having to do with Trump’s behavior, the other being how it has taken this long, with someone this brazen in his behavior, to have been flagged for penalties.
Oh, and the behavior is just devastating. The average savvy reader of this blog likely understands the basics in running a foundation, similar to a trust. It is a wholly separate legal entity, or should be. A properly formed foundation receives legal recognition or “personhood,” under the law. It can enter contracts, it can collect money and not pay taxes on it, it can pay out monies both in running itself and in the object of its charitable purpose. It can sue, and obviously it can be sued, it can even be held criminally liable. Indeed, one wonders just how close Trump is to criminal liability for the actions set out in the complaint. Regardless, our average savvy reader also understands that these “privileges” (especially the “tax-exempt status) is conferred only upon strict adherence to some very basic principles.
One basic principle – that the Foundation be “separate” from any one person is set forth in the requirement that there be a Board of Directors, and that the Board of Directors meet at least once a year. Each director has his/her own duty to use their own talent/judgment to see that the law is followed and the foundation acts appropriately under the law. The Trump Foundation has been in existence since 1999 and has not once had a meeting of the Board of Directors (which include Trump, Junior, Ivanka and Eric). Not one. It’s just a law, ignore it.
Even Trump’s defensive tweet demonstrates that something was extremely odd about this “charity.” From CNN, Trump tweeted:
The sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town) A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000. I won’t settle this case!” he said in one tweet.
Weird as it is, that statement right there admits that they failed to keep a proper accounting and personal money must have been mixed into the foundation money. By definition, the only money that the foundation can pay out, is its own damn money! If it paid out more than it took in, someone else’s money was mixed in! And I don’t care if you paid out more than you took in, if you paid it out to the Sports Book at Ceasar’s Palace, that is a problem, no matter where the money originated.
One person whom we know did not mix his own money into the pot is Donald Trump, who did not donate a single cash dollar after 2008, not one. He “donated” in-kind golf outings which operate every bit as much as advertising as they do donations, and are only a “gift” if they represent money that the private individual or company would otherwise have. The golf outings are dicey in this regard because many of Trump’s golf clubs are losing money, so if they aren’t that busy in the first place, what is a round of golf that would otherwise not be played really worth?
Doesn’t matter, because the real sin is in the payouts, specifically what the foundation’s money paid for. There is one primary beneficiary to the Trump Foundation, and it is not the American Cancer institute, it is Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign. Per CNN again:
