I think it’s irrelevant. My understanding is that GAAP does not apply to private organizations. Some still follow parts or all of GAAP as it’s easy and the standard, but they are not required to know it or follow it.
edit: looking at the above Trump deposition, it could just be he doesn’t know that GAAP doesn’t apply (note the lawyers objection to form which would cover that). However, if the Trump organization in its filings said it followed GAAP, that would be a problem.
edit 2 - I was curious so looked at the NYAG complaint, and it appears that TO did represent it’s financials were prepared in accordance with GAAP, so yes, it’s a problem the CFO doesn’t know GAAP (assuming he prepared them). From the complaint:
“Moreover, Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization have no excuse for issuing Statements of Financial Condition that repeatedly violated GAAP rules in multiple ways despite expressly representing in the Statements that they were prepared in accordance with GAAP.”
They also issued statements that were in blatant violation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in the United States, despite representing that the statements were prepared in accordance with these principles.
Does the CFO actually prepare the financial statements, or do they just hire an accountant to do it? If the CFO is just responsible for making sure the financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP, then he could fulfill his obligation by just hiring an accountant to do them.
I was watching OG Star Trek last night and thinking how lucky Trump is the worst that could happen in this trial is he loses his business. You know what the penalty for fraud is on Deneb 5?
SPOCK: The guilty party has his choice. Death by electrocution, death by gas, death by phaser, death by hanging.
Depends, some phasers burned you up from the inside out over a few seconds. Depending on the FX budget of the show it could take a long time for the phaser to kill you.
