Donald Trump Alledgedly Helped His Parents Avoid Taxes, Performed “Outright Fraud”

Donald Trump helped his parents, Fred Trump and Mary Anne Trump, “dodge taxes” in the Nineties, sometimes performing “outright fraud” while doing so, according to a new report in The New York Times. Trump, unlike his colleagues during the 2016 election, did not release his tax returns, making the Times‘ report one of the rare insights we have into his finances.

DONALD TRUMP ALLEGEDLY HELPED HIS PARENTS AVOID TAXES

When Trump was only three-years-old, he began being given money from his father’s real estate empire. In total, he received “at least $413 million in today’s dollars.” According to the Times, Trump and his siblings hid their parents’ money in a “sham corporation,” with Trump personally helping his father conduct “improper tax deductions worth millions more.” Trump also undervalued their holdings on tax returns, reducing the amount of taxes they needed to pay.

SLIDESHOW: DONALD TRUMP’S 30 CRAZIEST TWEETS

The paper conducted their investigation over several months, reviewing more than 100,000 pages worth of various financial documents. Over 200 of Fred Trump’s tax returns were among the papers surveyed, and the Times spoke with some of his former employees and consultants. Trump, notably, was on his father’s payroll in different positions over the years, and he along with his siblings were mostly able to assume ownership of their father’s business on Nov. 22, 1997.

Robert Trump, the President’s younger brother, issued the following statement in retaliation to the Times‘ report:

“Our dear father, Fred C. Trump, passed away in June 1999. Our beloved mother, Mary Anne Trump, passed away in August 2000. All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid. Our father’s estate was closed in 2001 by both the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State tax authorities, and our mother’s estate was closed in 2004. Our family has no other comment on these matters that happened some 20 years ago, and would appreciate your respecting the privacy of our deceased parents, may God rest their souls.”

Likewise, Trump took to Twitter to share his own rebuttal, referring to the Times‘ investigation as “a very old, boring and often told hit piece.”

The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before. They used the concept of “time value of money” in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2018

Additionally, Trump declined to speak with the Times in the weeks they were performing their investigation. Trump’s current lawyer Charles Harder, however, said in a statement that the Times‘ claims “of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory. There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which the Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.”