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The purported value of Ivanka Trump’s Park Avenue penthouse came under scrutiny this week during testimony at trial in the New York attorney general’s $250 million civil fraud case against the former president. Donald Bender, a former accountant for Donald Trump at the accounting firm Mazars USA, testified in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday that he saw errors between the value listed for the posh pad on financial documents and its potential sale price. Bender explained from the witness stand that, while he wasn’t in charge of auditing the company financials, he “from time to time” would tell Trump Organization...

Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social early Tuesday that he will be back in a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday for the second day of the $250 million civil fraud trial brought against him by the New York Attorney General’s Office. “I’d love to be campaigning instead of doing this,” he had said Monday when proceedings finished for the day, insisting he “built a great company.” Outside the courtroom Monday, Trump reiterated claims he made earlier in the day that the charges against him amount to election interference in the 2024 presidential race. The fraud lawsuit brought by New York...

An interview with author Mark Cook to discuss his 2022 published book on the decipherment of Linear A.Rewriting History : The decipherment of Linear A and a history of Egypto-Cretan relations | 33:44Mark Cook | 5 subscribers | 258 views | April 27, 2023

Actress Alyssa Milano has settled a legal battle with her former accountant as the case was on the verge of going to trial. Milano and her husband, agent David Bugliari, filed suit in 2017, alleging that accountant Kenneth Hellie had forged her signature on checks, failed to pay overdue bills and taxes and allowed costs to balloon on their home remodeling project. Hellie filed a countersuit, accusing Milano and Bugliari of ignoring repeated warnings to rein in the remodeling project and stop spending. The case was set to go to trial on Aug. 19 in the Van Nuys Superior Court....

A former accountant for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified Friday that she helped falsify tax records on his behalf in order to misrepresent $900,000 in personal income as a business loan. Cindy Laporta testified before a jury that she was asked by Manafort's former business associate, Rick Gates, that Manafort couldn't afford to pay his taxes 2015, telling her that she should instead misrepresent Manafort's income, The Washington Post Reported. The misrepresentation is estimated to have saved Manafort at least $400,000 in taxes, according to Laporta. Laporta, who has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors for her testimony,...

Declassified FBI documents show that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was targeted by a Russian spy posing as an accountant who wanted access to her and her husband, Bill Clinton. The FBI affidavit details how the the Russian intelligence service the SVR and the Kremlin sought to influence the Clintons using covert and illegal means between 2009-10, The Hill reported. ...

As Hillary Clinton was beginning her job as President Obama’s chief diplomat, federal agents observed as multiple arms of Vladimir Putin’s machine unleashed an influence campaign designed to win access to the new secretary of State, her husband Bill Clinton and members of their inner circle, according to interviews and once-sealed FBI records. Some of the activities FBI agents gathered evidence about in 2009 and 2010 were covert and illegal. A female Russian spy posing as an American accountant, for instance, used a false identity to burrow her way into the employ of a major Democratic donor in hopes of...

As Las Vegas police continue to search for a motive behind the deadliest mass shooting in American history, details continue to surface about the past of the 64-year-old shooting suspect. A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Stephen Paddock worked as an agent for the Internal Revenue Service in its auditing department and was also a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. The spokesperson said Paddock worked as a mailman for the USPS for two years from 1976-1978 and then worked for the IRS for six years until 1984. After that,...

Total vanity post here - sorry if it is in the wrong place. I am looking for a new accountant for my IT consulting practice in the Philadelphia PA area, and looking to other freepers for recommendations (send responses privately if you prefer). I had someone who was well aligned with my aggressive approach to deductions and expenses. Their practice got bought by someone who is more conservative in their approach. Consequently, my taxes for 2015 went up 30%. I need someone who knows the rules and follows them but isn't afraid to use them to my benefit when possible.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has brought conspiracy charges against a Yemeni man and a Sudanese man, both described as having close ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), making them the first Guantanamo Bay prisoners to face criminal charges, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Tuesday. The Defense Department said Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan were charged with a single count each of conspiracy to commit war crimes and will be brought to trial before a military tribunal. Pentagon spokesman...

Pope Francis pledged to reform the Curia and resolve the cloud over the Institute for Religious Works (IOR in Italian), commonly known as the Vatican Bank. Earlier this week, the pontiff appointed a five-member commission to delve deeply into the IOR’s operations, but Italian authorities pressed on with their own investigations. Earlier today, they arrested a suspended accountant from a Vatican financial group after he tried to smuggle €20 million ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland: A Vatican official already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank was arrested Friday in a separate operation: Prosecutors allege...

In a stunning blow to the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to regulate the tax preparation profession, a federal judge struck down the IRS’s licensing requirements for tax preparers on Friday, including testing and continuing education. U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg ruled against the IRS and in favor of the tax preparers in enjoining the agency against enforcing its Registered Tax Return Preparer requirements. “Today’s ruling is a victory for hundreds of thousands of tax preparers across the country and the tens of millions of taxpayers who rely on them to prepare their taxes,” said lead attorney Dan Alban....

'I try to forget I had a good life," Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson wistfully quips about his career before being elected in 2010—or as good a life as could be had running a business in the midst of an unrelenting regulatory and rhetorical assault from Washington. Mr. Johnson jumped into the fire two years ago when he toppled progressive Democrat Russ Feingold in one of the year's marquee Senate races. He met with Journal editors this week to discuss what he has learned during his first two years in office and what he hopes to accomplish in the next four....

The Nation's Accountant Tells It Like It Is Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006 WASHINGTON -- NewsMax caught up with U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, who, at age 54, is a bona fide baby boomer. The energetic CPA was direct about what most motivates him: "The baby boomers are on the path to be the first generation in the history of this country not to leave the country better positioned for the future. "That is unacceptable to me, and I will continue to fight as long as I can to try to make sure that that doesn't become...

A tax accountant embezzled $10 million from a client, then used it to fund a lavish lifestyle that included a $2.2 million California mansion, a $74,000 bat mitzvah for his daughter and the production of three horror movies, authorities said Tuesday. Prosecutors said Denis I. Shusterman blew through the $10 million over eight years, spending about half on the three B movies. They said he also wrote off many of his good times as business expenses when he filed his income taxes. As Shusterman's embezzlement and fraud trial opened in federal court, prosecutors also said he gave $495,000 to one...

Japanese accountant picked as cheerleader for NFL's ColtsAccountant Yoshiko Danjo will make her debut as a cheerleader for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts during a pre-season event here in Tokyo next week. Yoshiko Danjo Danjo was set to follow her father and grandmother who were both certified public accountants, but her white-collar career has been put on hold after she was chosen as a cheerleader. Danjo received dancing lessons for six years during her junior high and high school days after watching a stage drama of the major Shiki Theatre Company. After entering Konan University in Kobe, Danjo witnessed a cheerleading...

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego City Council unanimously agreed today to spend $250,000 to hire the former chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission to help in federal investigations of the city's finances. Lynn E. Turner, now a senior adviser with Kroll Zolfo Cooper, would be retained to review investigative reports by the law firm Vinson & Elkins and the City Attorney's Office, and make recommendations to the City Council. The city's goal in hiring Turner is to secure an audit of San Diego's 2003 finances, which was held back by the outside accounting firm KPMG pending further...

Five men who allegedly forced a Sydney accountant to swallow acid at gunpoint have been charged with his murder. Accountant Dominic Li, 45, died on January 2 last year after he was allegedly forced to swallow acid at gunpoint in front of his wife and 14-year-old son on December 13, 2002 at their Concord home. Five men aged 24-39 were all charged with murder and conspiring to inflict grievous bodily harm. Two were also charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm while the other three also face charges of being an accessory. Some face assault and firearms charges. A sixth man...

Has the credibility of the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board been destroyed before it's even up and running? That's what some critics contend following an announcement last week that members set their own pay at $452,000 per year and the new chairman's salary at a whopping $556,000. "This doesn't speak well to the ethics and integrity of its members when the first thing they want to do is pad their own pockets," said compensation expert Graef Crystal. Although the board says the pay is necessary to attract the best talent, others note that $452,000 is more money than any...

A German actor who weighs 19st (266 pounds) was jailed for 15 years yesterday for squashing his accountant to death. Günther Kaufmann, 55, burst into tears when sentence was passed in a Munich court. Kaufmann, who claimed that he had accidentally fallen on the accountant, was both Exhibit A - the weapon - and the accused. It was the first time in German legal history that a person had been charged with using his bulk to kill somebody. Kaufmann was cleared of murder but found guilty of grievous robbery and blackmail with fatal consequences. The prosecution said he lay on...