A court-ordered financial auditor has caught Donald Trump quietly moving $40 million from the Trump Organization into a personal bank account—seemingly so the former president could pay his whopping $29 million tax bill.
Trump isn’t supposed to be moving any money around without alerting Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge in New York tasked with babysitting the Trump Organization for its relentlessly shady business practices. But on Wednesday, she notified a New York state court about some major bank transfers that were never brought to her attention by the Trumps.
Jones described the way she discovered the Trump family company once again breaking the rules during an audit of its finances in recent months. In the run-up to the ongoing bank fraud trial that threatens to vaporize the real estate company and boot the Trumps from the business world, Justice Arthur F. Engoron ordered the company to not start shifting around funds to avoid paying what’s becoming an increasingly threatening massive penalty.
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That meant the Trumps had to notify Jones anytime they moved more than $5 million out of the billionaire’s massive trust. Except they didn’t.
Jones said she and her team recently spotted unusual activity when reviewing 10 months of bank statements from 12 separate accounts belonging to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. They found that Trump had pulled out $40 million in “three cash transfers” without ever notifying her.
She asked about it and got answers.
“These transactions included a cash transfer of $29 million to Donald J. Trump, which I have confirmed was used for tax payments,” she wrote.
But the rest apparently went to cover Trump’s mounting legal costs following a searing jury verdict in May that determined he sexually assaulted the journalist E. Jean Carroll—and slapped him with a $5 million penalty.
“I have also confirmed that the other transfers were for insurance premiums and to an attorney escrow account,” Jones wrote, referencing the Carroll case.
