Replies to post #474796 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[hap0206]

and those facts are provided by the FBI/IRS
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-eight-counts-including-criminal-tax

[hap0206]

You know -- been thinking about how Trump should have recorded those payments to Cohen -- I've done a bunch of "chart of accounts" for start-up companies over my 70 year career as an accountant -- every one of them had an account called "Misc expenses" -- when auditing of course that account got a lot of attention-- but looking at those transactions, when the first four payments of $35k were made -- $130k should have been classified as Misc Expense (no C of A has an account for hush money) -- the rest of the $420k was employee expense -- wonder if Bragg would charge it as a criminal transaction if the Trump accountant had put the $130k in Misc expense ?

HUGE LOL

[fuagf]

hap0206, As a matter of fact, didja know, I did about eight months with Price Waterhouse then, when considering
whether or not fixing books for a living could be for me. Decided nope, would rather be reading other types.

Back to the Bragg case: Who cares how the payments to Cohen were recorded. Whether ""severance pay", advice from a trusted friend, general legal services, 'scratch my back i'll do yours, or miscellaneous, i don't see why you place any real importance on how they were falsely recorded. Unless it all was recorded for what it actually was it would have been falsifying business records to exert illegal influence on an election outcome. Seems to me.

"So Mr. chief accountant how do you record such payments -- I would have called them "severence pay" for services rendered -- but when the TrumpCompany got the first invoice from Cohen (now apparently a practicing attorney) it was for a "retainer" for legal services -- retainers are for legal services to be rendered -- so the accountant recorded them as a legal expense -- obviously wrong -- they were for employee services already rendered"

At this stage at least, i don't see what you say there affects in any way the crux of the prosecution's case.