Trump Foundation Self Dealing
In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service has created a series of regulations to ensure the validity and integrity of nonprofit organizations, one of the most important of which is a ban on self-dealing. This regulation prohibits leaders of nonprofit organizations from using the charity's funds to advance themselves, their families, or their business interests. In recent years, evidence has come to light that the Trump Foundation, the charitable foundation of the current President, Donald Trump, engaged in practices of self-dealing.
img src="images/trump-foundation-self-dealing.jpg" width="123" height="123" alt="Trump Foundation Self Dealing" align="right">Tax filings for the Trump Foundation for 2015 included two admissions of self-dealing:
- Questions marked in the affirmative included one asking if income or assets were transferred to a person not eligible to receive such income or assets
- One question asking if acts of self-dealing had been conducted in the past.
Though these filings did not include any specific details of the instances of self-dealing, reports point to a six-foot tall painting of Trump that he commissioned using the charity's funds and instances where charitable funds were used to pay settlements associated with Trump's businesses in both Florida and New York. Additional evidence suggests that Trump Foundation funds were used to purchase items that Trump and his wife, Melania, had purchased at various charity auctions; if these items were put to charitable use, allegations of self-dealing would not stand, but there is no evidence to suggest the ultimate usage of these various items. While the president has stated that he will dissolve the Trump Foundation to disengage himself from any questionable practices, he has not done so as of yet; as such, the investigations into self-dealing by the Trump Foundation and the appropriate repercussions for said activities remain open.