Washington : President-elect Donald Trump’s charity has admitted that it violated IRS regulations barring it from using its money or assets to benefit Trump, his family, his companies or substantial contributors to the foundation, reports AP.
The admissions by the Donald J Trump Foundation were made in a 2015 tax filing made public after a presidential election in which it was revealed that Trump has used the charity to settle lawsuits, make a $25,000 political contribution and purchase items such as a painting of himself that was displayed at one of his properties.
The filing’s release, first reported by The Washington Post, comes as the New York attorney general’s office investigates whether Trump personally benefited from the foundation’s spending. The filing also shows Trump’s foundation accepted money from a Ukrainian businessman who also gave money to one of Trump’s favoured targets on the campaign trail: The Clinton Foundation. The charity also donated to a conservative group that backed Trump during his candidacy. The 2015 tax filing was posted on the nonprofit monitoring website GuideStar on Nov 18 by someone using an email address from the foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, said GuideStar spokeswoman Jackie Enterline Fekeci. In the tax filing, the foundation acknowledged that it used money or assets in violation of the regulations not only during 2015, but in prior years. But the tax filing doesn’t provide details on the violations. Questions about the violations sent via email to Trump’s transition team weren’t immediately answered on Tuesday.
