Looking into this further, I learned Trump and Mazars included hedges in at least some of their financial statements that Trump will no doubt use if those statements become the basis of claims that he did not tell the truth on the statements. The unreliably of Trump's financial statements -- at least some of them -- is not a surprise to those who read the fine print. Trump pretty much told his statement readers that the statements were unreliable when he provided the statements.I think the Mazars declaration and exit will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It will be the event that triggers the Trump Organization to collapse like a house of cards as Trump's lenders and business partners begin to see Trump as "Donald the Doomed" and begin their race to claim Trump's prized assets before others do.
Admittedly, I'm taking a leap here, assuming Trump's lenders and partners will respond as I suggest above. My view is conditioned by my own business experience in which Diane and I have submitted financial statements and tax returns to our lenders and business partners. When doing so, we must attest to their accuracy as a condition of doing business with these entities.
Trump still finds himself without an accounting firm, which itself is a major issue. But the Mazars declaration that Trump's financial statements are unreliable may not be as catastrophic to Trump as I first thought, because Trump and Mazars said that all along; at least in the statements Forbes is reporting about in the piece below.
Note that we do not know what statements Trump gave to what lenders, and what hedges, if any, those contained.
"In all three years, the accountants issued a word of caution: 'Because the significance and pervasiveness of the matters discussed above make it difficult to assess their impact on the statement of financial condition, users of this financial statement should recognize that they might reach different conclusions about the financial condition of Donald J. Trump if they had access to a revised statement' that complied with GAAP standards.
“'They were doing their own risk management,' says Francine McKenna, an accountant and former Forbes contributor.
"In other words, for years Trump’s accountants were willing to sign off on their famous client’s numbers—but admitted that if you want to know what Trump is really worth, you might not want to look at his balance sheet at all." (Source)
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