Update - November 2019: Final legal action in the case brought by the State of New York against the Trump Foundation was handed down this week by Judge Saliann Scarpulla. As part of the settlement, the New York state judge ordered Mr. Trump to personally pay $2 million to a group of charitable organizations.

This payment relates to a 2016 fundraiser held by the Trump Foundation to benefit military veterans. Three million dollars was raised at the event, but the money was directed to the Trump presidential campaign instead of veterans organizations.

The judge ordered that the $2 million must be paid by Mr. Trump himself for violating his fiduciary duty to properly oversee his foundation, stating: "Mr. Trump's fiduciary duty breaches included allowing his campaign to orchestrate the Fundraiser, allowing his campaign, instead of the Foundation, to direct distribution of the Funds, and using the Fundraiser and distribution of the Funds to further Mr. Trump's political campaign."

Our original article below describes how the Trump Foundation was shut down for persistent violations of state charities laws, having repeatedly used charitable assets for unlawful purposes.

December 2018 - Many political observers have speculated that Donald Trump's finances, business practices, and ethical shortcomings would eventually catch up with him and that these aspects of his past are what Mr. Trump has feared the most from the Robert Mueller investigations.

And while Mr. Trump has been successful in avoiding/settling private lawsuits related to his refusing to pay contractors or to the fraudulent nature of his so-called Trump University, the purpose of recent investigations into Mr. Trump's past have expanded beyond what frequently occurs when a Citizen seeks or is elected to public office. These investigations now are being performed by law enforcement agencies around the country, looking into possible criminal activity.

Last week the Attorney General for the State of New York, Barbara Underwood, reached an agreement with the Trump family to close the family's charitable organization, the Trump Foundation. Unlike many families who establish charitable foundations for purposes of doing good in the world (e.g., the Rockefellers, the Fords, Bill and Melinda Gates, etc.), widespread reports had indicated that Mr. Trump used his foundation to bankroll the Trump Organization's business expenses and to fund his personal and political expenses.

(image from widipedia)

Ms. Underwood confirmed these reports at a press conference, characterizing the activities of the Trump Foundation as exhibiting an "…egregious pattern of illegality - including repeatedly using charitable assets for unlawful purposes…"

Per the Attorney General's lawsuit and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning reporting of the Washington Post's David Fahrenthold, examples of how some of the Foundation's money was used include the following:

$158k and $125k were paid to settle two legal obligations of Mr. Trump's, not obligations of the Trump Foundation
$268k was paid to the Central Park Conservancy to re-furbish a fountain outside of one of Mr. Trump's hotels
$7 was paid to the Boy Scouts in 1989, which happened to be the Boy Scouts' admission fee that year, the year that Donald Trump Jr. was eleven and eligible to join the Scouts.
$20k was paid for a 6-foot tall portrait of Mr. Trump that hung in one of Mr. Trump's hotels
$10k was paid for a second portrait of Mr. Trump
$12k was paid for a football helmet autographed by ex-NFL quarterback Tim Tebow
$25k was donated to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's re-election campaign at a time when Ms. Bondi's office was looking into fraud charges against Trump University

The Fahrenthold article also included a quote from attorney and author Jeffrey Tenenbaum, who advises charities at Washington's Venable LLP law firm: "I represent 700 nonprofits a year, and I've never encountered anything so brazen."

Dissolution of the Foundation will be made under supervision of the courts, and disbursement of the Foundation's remaining $1.75 million must be made to reputable organizations approved by the New York Attorney General's office.

The state will seek to temporarily ban Mr. Trump and his children, who served as board members of the Foundation, from serving on any other New York non-profit boards and the state also will seek $2.8 million in restitution, plus additional penalties.

Wow, and we thought Sarah Palin was rather brazen when, before she quit as Alaska's Governor barely two years into her four-year term, she tried to fraudulently charge Alaska's taxpayers for family members' travel expenses.

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