Former President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks at a rally Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Florence, Ariz.
Ross D. Franklin | AP
The accounting firm Mazars has fired the Trump Organization as a client after saying that a decade’s worth of statements of ex-President Donald Trump‘s financial condition “should no longer be relied upon,” the New York Attorney General’s office revealed in a court filing Monday.
The letter by Mazars, which for years prepared Trump’s income tax returns, was cited by AG Letitia James’ office as it asked a state judge to order the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr. and his sister Ivanka Trump, and others to comply with subpoenas seeking documents and testimony.
James for several years has been investigating how the Trump Organization valued certain real estate assets in applications for loans, insurance policies, and tax-related issues.
Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has told Congress that the company manipulated the value of those assets depending on the circumstance to obtain better financial terms and to lower its tax obligations.
James’ office said last month that it had determined that statements of Trump’s financial condition described his valuation process “in broad terms and in ways which were often inaccurate or misleading when compared with the supporting data and documentation that the Trump Organization submitted to its accounting firm.”
Mazars told Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten in a letter last week that he should inform any recipients that the statements of Trump’s financial condition for 2011 through 2020 “should not be relied upon.”
The firm told Garten that its conclusion was based on filings made by the AG’s office, “our own investigation,” and other information from different parties.
“While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based on the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,” Mazars said in its letter to Garten.
Mazars also said in its letter that it would no longer “provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”
The firm said it based on its decision about the past work’s reliability, “as well as the totality of circumstances, we have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization.”
Garten did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into the issues that James is eyeing in her civil probe.
The DA’s office last year obtained Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns dating to 2011 after a years-long fight by the former president to block a subpoena for those and other documents from Mazars.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
