Non bastava che l'attuale inquilino della Casa Bianca non avesse ancora messo a disposizione dell'opinione pubblica le sue tasse, non bastava che questo incredibile personaggio fosse assillato da centinaia di cause promosse da fornitori per prodotti e servizi effettuati nei suoi alberghi e mai pagati.
Adesso si viene a sapere che il figlio Eric ha distolto centinaia di migliaia di dollari destinati ad una fondazione per i bambini ammalati di cancro e li ha fatti confluire sui conti dell'amministrazione di Donald Trump.
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Eric
Trump is slamming a Forbes report that alleges his charity, the Eric
Trump Foundation, has been funneling donations -- from donors who
believed the money was going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital --
to the Trump Organization by paying high sums for use of Trump
properties during fundraisers and re-donating some funds to charities
friendly with Trump interests.
Forbes reported Tuesday
that the Eric Trump Foundation paid the Trump family business hundreds
of thousands of dollars over the last seven years for use of one of the
organization’s golf courses, funds which he claimed were being donated
nearly in full to the children’s cancer charity.
"We
were able to come up with this concept of raising a lot of money with
really no expense and it's because we were incurring the expenses at the
assets we were taking on the expenses as Trump. We were using our own
facilities," Eric told donors in a promotional video.
According
to IRS filings, the Eric Trump Foundation in 2012 spent $59,085 on its
annual Golf Invitational fundraiser held at the Trump National Golf Club
in Westchester County, New York -- money that skimmed from donations to
St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Those expenses ballooned to
$230,080 in 2013 and to $242,294 in 2014, according to the filings. It
is unclear from these tax forms how much of those payments went to the
Trump Organization.
Forbes
reported that in 2011, costs for Eric Trump’s golf tournament
fundraiser tripled because his father realized that the organization had
not been charging for the event and there were no bills to prove it.
The Foundation declined to provide Forbes with an itemized list of
expenses for the tournament.
Charity
experts told Forbes that the amount paid to the Trump Organization for a
golf tournament fundraiser for St. Jude’s "defy any reasonable cost."
The
increased costs for the tournament coincided with changes to the
Foundation’s board in 2010, when it changed from being made up of mostly
Eric’s personal friends to those closely connected with the financial
interests of the Trump Organization, according to Forbes.
The
tax filings also show that the Eric Trump Foundation made a 2014
payment of $87,665 to another Trump property, the Trump National Golf
Club in Washington, DC for fundraising events.
In
addition, the Forbes report claims that Eric Trump's charity redirected
some donations. More than $500,000 was given by the Eric Trump
Foundation to other charities, "many of which were connected to Trump
family members or interests," according to Forbes.
In a statement released Tuesday, a spokesman for the president's son defended the Eric Trump Foundation.
"During
the past decade, the Eric Trump Foundation has raised over $16.3
million for St. Jude Children’s Research hospital while maintaining an
expense ratio of just 12.3 percent," the statement reads. "The Eric
Trump Foundation was also responsible for building a $20 million dollar
ICU which treats the sickest children anywhere in the world suffering
from the most catastrophic terminal illnesses."
The
statement continues, "Contrary to recent reports, at no time did the
Trump Organization profit in any way from the foundation or any of its
activities. While people can disagree on political issues, to infer
malicious intent on a charity that has changed so many lives, is not
only shameful but is truly disgusting. At the end of the day the only
people who lose are the children of St. Jude and other incredibly worthy
causes."
And
as Forbes points out in its report, “Altruism as a business-development
strategy isn't necessarily illegal. But a situation in which outside
donor money is redeployed away from the core mission in ways that seem
to ultimately benefit the family that pays the majority of the board is
-- at best -- an appearance problem."
