Donald Trump has dissolved 106 of his companies since a judge forced him to place his business empire under an independent monitor, a financial report has shown.
The 106 are among the 521 companies identified by monitor Barbara Jones as being part of the Trump Organization, the parent company that oversees the hundreds of companies within the Trump real-estate empire. Jones has had great difficulty obtaining information about the dissolved companies and asked questions to the Trump Organization for eight months.
In September, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a partial summary judgment in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Trump and top executives at the Trump Organization committed fraud. Engoron held that Trump grossly inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. Engoron then stripped the companies of their business certificates and appointed retired judge Jones to monitor them.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said the case is part of a political witch hunt aimed at derailing him as frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Jones has written a final report for Engoron, who must decide the punishment for Donald Trump and the Trump Organization for fraudulent overstatement of assets to obtain bank loans. Engoron must also decide if Trump should be banned for life from the real-estate industry, as James has requested.
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Jones’ report shows that she spent eight months trying to find out information about the dissolution of the 106 companies and was only given information about them months after they were dissolved.
Of the 521 companies, “51 were dissolved by the Trump Organization during the monitorship in late 2022 and early 2023. An additional 55 entities were dissolved in September and October 2023,” Jones’ report into the company found.
Jones wrote in her report that she struggled for months to get any information on the dissolution of Trump companies.
“While I was informed of planned dissolutions in April 2023, the Trump Organization was not prepared to effectuate the dissolutions at that time. I requested that the Trump Organisation advise me immediately when the entities were dissolved. It was not until I inquired in December 2023 that I learned that many, but not all of the entities, had been dissolved in September and October 2023,” she wrote.
Jones added that, after the dissolutions, there are now 415 companies in the Trump Organization. Of these, 21 are “Fred Trump entities” that were set up by the Republican’s father, the real-estate investor, Fred Trump. Seventy companies are “operating entities” that generate revenue through rent and other property income. These include companies that control The Trump Building at 40 Wall Street; the Trump National Doral golf club in Miami; and the Trump Tower in Manhattan.
As Trump lends out his name and brand for everything from ties to golfing accessories, 71 companies handle license agreements, and 11 look after management agreements. Ninety-four companies “appear dormant” or are “no longer active based on their business purpose.”
Jones’ report gives a valuable insight into how the Trump Organization is structured. She found that “with respect to cash management and flow of funds within the organization, generally, operating entities like commercial properties, resorts and golf clubs, transfer their income to centralized accounts or entities” that hold and distribute the consolidated cash. “Management determines the cash needs of each entity on a going forward basis and distributes funds as necessary.”
Jones, a retired federal judge, submitted a report on the companies to Engoron before he decides this week what penalties to impose on Trump for fraudulent asset evaluation that predated Jones’ monitorship.
In her report, Jones wrote that the Trump Organization has implemented changes under her monitorship, but needs to do more.
“My observations suggest misstatements and errors may continue to occur, which could result in incorrect or inaccurate reporting of financial information to third parties,” she added.
Trump’s lawyer, Chris Kise, strongly rejected Jones’ findings.
“Wandering beyond her mandate, it appears the Monitor has been paid $2.6 million to ‘uncover’ seven immaterial disclosure items, three irrelevant inconsistencies and five clerical errors,” he wrote in a statement to Newsweek on January 29.
“She even attempts to sensationalize President Trump’s $40 million in tax payments by disingenuously characterizing them as a failure of disclosure. This is truly a joke,” Kise added.
Engoron will rule this week on how much the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will pay in damages, as well as rule on six other accusations—including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy claims. James is seeking the return of $370 million in profits Trump made. The former president denies any wrongdoing.
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