'Toontime: Follow the Money

credit: Adam Zygliss, Buffalo News
BC Idonwanna sez: Orange man self-made fool.

At a time when the Russian Connection investigation seems to have sailed in to the doldrums, and when Robert Mueller is laying off federal prosecutors, the New York Times investigative journalists have scored an impressive tour de force of forensic accounting implicating Mr. Yuge in numerous tax fraud violations.  Their work explains how a bankrupt businessman came up with $400 billion in cash to buy 44 properties during the Great Recession.  The self-proclaimed "king of debt" is actually the "prince of thieves". The paper accuses him of participating “in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud.”At least $413 million came from his father's estate.

All told, the senior Trumps transferred well over a billion dollars of wealth to their children.  That amount would have been reduced by $550 million in estate taxes under the rates in effect at the time. Instead, the heirs only paid about $52 million. The paper details Trump's deceptive tax avoidance in 13,000 words--the longest investigative article ever published by the Times. Their reporting virtually guarantees state and federal tax authorities will begin scrutinizing Trump's tax avoidance activities.  The prospect of fighting a major tax fraud prosecution has got to be more unnerving that a politically dubious impeachment.

By age 3, the Donald was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. In his 40s and 50s, he was receiving more than $5 million a year. Then, Mr. Yuge attempted in 1990 to get his generous father to sign a codicil to his will that would have allowed him to use his father's estate before Fred Trump passed away as collateral for his failing business empire.  He was more than $900 billion in debt at the time.  Fred Trump was angered by the move, telling his daughter to find new lawyers and protect his assets from his son's creditors.

But Fred faced the prospect of paying 55% in estate taxes. So the hard feelings were put aside and the family created a company, All County Supply & Maintenance, to siphon off some of their accumulated wealth. The company was a paper shell, its only apparent function was to mark-up purchases already made by Trump employees. The profits were passed on to Donald and his siblings. Leading tax experts briefed on the arrangement think the method could constitute criminal gift tax fraud. It also appears from the paper's sleuthing that All County used padded invoices to justify rent increases in Trump's rent controlled apartment properties.  The parents also vastly undervalued assets passed to their progeny through a special trust, thus avoiding millions in gift taxes.  The Times says it identified 295 distinct revenue streams Fred created over five decades to aid his "self-made" son.

Mr. Yuge's mantra may change from "no collusion" to "no fraud" by next year, especially if Democrats gain control of Congress.  A harbinger of things to come: Trump fell another eleven rungs on the Forbes 400 list to 259.  When US Person reads stories about the arrogance of the rich, he is reminded of the line spoken by actor Lee Marvin in the film, The Professionals. When the cattle magnet who hired him and his colleagues to free the purportedly kidnapped wife from Mexican revolutionaries calls him a "son of a bitch", Lee phlegmatically replies, "Yes sir, in my case an accident of birth. But you sir, you are a self-made man."