NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump blamed his accountants. So did the two sons he entrusted to run his company. Now, as they mount their defense in the civil fraud trial threatening the former president’s real estate empire, his lawyers are too.
Trump’s lawyers spent Tuesday digging into outside accounting firm Mazars USA LLP’s role in preparing financial statements at the heart of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, upping the blame with expert testimony from a former federal financial regulator.
Jason Flemmons, testifying as an accounting expert, questioned some of the firm’s practices and raised doubts about earlier testimony from Donald Bender, the retired Mazars partner who spent years working on Trump’s financial statements.
Bender, the first witness called by state lawyers, testified Oct. 3 that he’d asked a Trump Organization executive for all of the company’s property appraisals — not just ones used for the financial statements — and that he was surprised when he learned years later that some hadn’t been turned over.
Flemmons, a former deputy chief accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said Bender’s claim was “not professionally plausible” because such diligence isn’t required under professional accounting standards.
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Compiling financial statements involves a “much lighter touch” than more stringent accounting practices, like audits, and requesting appraisals “would be highly unusual” and…
