Donald Trump Jr. Claims Ignorance Of Basic Accounting In Court Filing Despite Being Top Trump Organization Executive

According to court papers filed this previous Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. claimed near-complete ignorance of the GAAP. GAAP is an acronym for generally accepted accounting principles and in short, is a set of procedures that public companies in the U.S must strictly follow.

Don Jr.’s lack of knowledge comes as a surprise as he has been the sole trustee for the Trump Organization, signing off on his father’s financial papers for years.

During the same deposition where Trump Jr. revealed his accounting ignorance, he also said that his only familiarity with GAAP was “probably [from] Accounting 101 in Wharton.”

Like this father and sister Ivanka, Don Jr. graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2004, Trump Jr. admitted that he used to “drink and party pretty hard,” while at college.

The court documents were filed by Letitia James, New York state’s attorney general. The court deposition was a part of a larger case against the Trump Organization for alleged fraud.

On the same day that James began the case against the former President’s business, Donald Trump registered a new company Trump Organization II in Delaware. James countered the move by filing court papers asking a New York judge to stop any movement of assets between the original Trump Organization and the new one.

The admission by Don Jr. is damning since as the sole trustee he was responsible for financial statements and how they were compiled.

James and her office have focused on inaccurate statements of financial condition that were written up each year by the Trump Organization.

“Donald Trump, Jr. testified that he was aware of an accounting firm being involved but otherwise had no knowledge of the process or mechanics of the Statements’ preparation,” his court filing said.

James filed a 220-page lawsuit against the Trump Organization on September 2 that seeks to ban the company from doing business in New York due to a pattern of systemic fraud.