Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives for jury selection on the second day of his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 16, 2024 in New York City.A nonprofit watchdog group has filed a complaint to the Department of Justice alleging that former President Donald Trump improperly listed a “mystery loan” on financial disclosures that could be evidence of tax fraud.
Failure to comply with the law, by either not filing such statements or making false claims on them, can result in fines and even one year of imprisonment,As CREW recounts in its filing, a court-appointed monitor overseeing Trump’s business entities — which was assigned to Trump and the Trump Organization as part of a civil fraud trial in New York — said that, when she asked about the loan upon discovering it in company documents, she was told that the loan “never existed.
It is not clear why Mr. Trump would have reported a non-existent loan as a liability owed to one of his own companies, but some reporting suggests that the deal could be part of a tax-avoidance scheme, known as debt parking, that has been used by taxpayers to purchase debt and then leave it in a separately-owned entity rather than incur tax liability on debt which has been forgiven, while others theorize that the loan may be owed to a secret third party.
“The FBI and the Department of Justice should investigate and, if the facts support it, act to ensure accountability for this lawlessness,” he added.