Could Excessive Business Losses Be A Result of Money Laundering?

[LuvNewcastle]

I know next to nothing about bookkeeping or finance and I have a question that I hope someone has the patience to answer for me.

Could someone owning multiple businesses use the profits from some of those businesses to launder money for someone else and then claim the missing profits as losses on their taxes?

I suppose the assets being laundered could be put into a secret overseas account or a foreign business. Would it be too hard to conceal funneling the profits from those businesses into an account for someone else?

[apnu]

1. Nah. They are two different things.

Losses provide motive for Money Laundering. At least all the fraud training I have to take yearly says.

so its the other way around, he's laundering money to help cover his losses.

And I presume when you mention money laundering, you mean allowing his properties to launder money for Russian oligarchs, which did absolutely happen in Manhattan.

I think the Russian underwriters of his dodgey Deutche Bank loans happened after he let is properties be a vehicle for laundering Russian mob money.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. Yeah, I was talking about money laundering for Russians.

And at least some of it is being done through Deutsche Bank. Now that Trump's taxes have been leaked, maybe someone will leak the some files from DB. But maybe that's asking for too much. I don't want to seem ungrateful for the taxes.

[matt819]

5. I have a mental block on money laundering

In trump's case. . .

He's taken vast losses on his businesses. Some of these losses are tax-related, e.g., depreciation and other non-cash deductions, credits, donations, etc. For example, giving to NYS a property he purchased for a couple of million dollars and when he donated it (because he couldn't build a golf course), he valued it at $100,000,000. Maybe also cash expenses that may not/should not be allowable as business expenses.

But. . . just from reading the articles, many/most of the losses are real cash losses, i.e., his businesses lost money.

So, is it these sorts of losses on a grand scale that lead to money laundering? So he's broke but needs money to support his lifestyle and his brand. Is that where the money laundering comes in? IOW, he either takes infusions of cash from dubious sources, runs them through his businesses, takes out his cut, and when it comes out the other end, what's left goes back to his benefactors via off-shore accounts, so-called legitimate businesses around the world, etc. That's a question. Is that what happens? And how would this be related to the apparent $421 million that he owes - to someone, somewhere? Would these be the cash infusions I suggested, just legitimized with paper?

Next question. If those so-called loans coming due are in fact money laundering from someone, somewhere (read that as Russia or shady oligarchs anywhere), he may be making payments in other ways, as the Manchurian candidate. That said, the loans seem to be real enough, at least according to the NYT, and if they are forgiven (because he's paid them via his treasonous behavior), then wouldn't that be income, as strange as that may seem? So he has a massive income tax liability. And no one will be there to back him up on that one. Do you see the Mercers or the Adelsons or the whoever shelling out tens of millions (or more) to pay that for him? And wouldn't that then be income, etc., etc., like an Escher painting.

One more thing, unrelated to the laundering issue. The NYT reported that he paid a "consultant" some $700,000+ dollars during the 2016 campaign I think it was. Shockingly, other documentation indicates that Ivanka received exactly this amount of money, even though she was an employee of the campaign. Hmmm. . . I wonder if she paid taxes on that income. Gosh, I hope not. Too bad they can't get adjacent cells.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. He did run a laundromat for Russian money, but the losses were primarily because he can't run...

a business.

Long before Putin, he destroyed Alexanders, "Trump Air", the Plaza Hotel, US Football league, and dozens of other ventures.

I imagine NY will is taking a close look at condos sold in Trump buildings and the prices paid. Advertising an apartment for 2 million, then selling it an oil sheikh or Russian billionaire for 10 million tends to raise eyebrows. It could go unnoticed for a long time in the hectic NYC real estate market, but not when you are President.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. It's really amazing how awful he is at business.

I'll bet Wharton wishes he'd never said a word about going there. He's never had to be successful at business, though. He's been taken care of his entire life.

[fleur-de-lisa]

3. It is my understanding that casinos and golf courses are prime ways to launder money.

This is a good article on the possiblity that Dump was laundering Russian mob money:

https://www.wired.com/story/if-trump-is-laundering-russian-money-heres-how-it-works/

[LuvNewcastle]

7. Thanks for the link.

I'm going to read it after lunch.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Trump is a classic case of adding personal expenses to business expenses

$70K for hair, $150K for makeup. Clothes, meals, and transportation all added as business expenses is mostly illegal, but done so regularly by the rich it's never policed. Trump pays for nothing, everything in his life is a business expense so he can claim losses and not pay taxes. And he's doing much more sophisticated things with the 500 business entities that were part of the Trump Foundation, by the time he rolls the money through several he can make anything look like a loss.

My wife owns a small LLC, we work with our accountant on what we can and cannot deduct for her business that she runs out of our home. The IRS provides clear guidance. We do what is right, when in doubt do not deduct an expense. Running a small business can be pretty easy accounting wise and there's a ton of ways to use the tax code to help you.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. It isn't enough for people like Trump

to help themselves, they have to pile it thick until they’re daring the government to accuse them of fraud. If they do accuse him of it, it will only be because this all became public. It’s shameful, and it makes me sick when I think of how differently he’s cheated compared to average people who cheat on their taxes, or just make an honest mistake.

[FakeNoose]

10. Chump used to own casinos in Atlantic City. 'Memba that?

When he owned casinos he took the Russian mobsters' dirty money and exchange it for cash that couldn't be traced. Well that didn't last long because the casinos went belly-up one by one.

Then he figured out he could make millions on the Russians (instead of thousands) by selling them luxury condos. Michael Cohen showed them how to set up dummy corporations with fake names and Delaware addresses. So the Russians purchased Chump's condo properties through fake-name corporations for twice the price. A few years later the original owners sold the property for real American dollars, laundered nice and clean. Michael Cohen testified to a lot of this, and there are details in his recent book.

[LuvNewcastle]

11. Yeah, I need to read that book.

I don’t know a lot about that sort of thing; I’ve never had any money to speak of, so I need to educate myself about this.