April 2, 2021 – Arkansas sanctions Clinton Foundation auditor – Numerous material issues including the Clinton Foundation and its auditor ignoring $483 million error

Guest post by Bob Bishop 

The Clinton Foundation is America’s largest unprosecuted racketeering and charity fraud case. Investigations of the Clinton Foundation, shelved by the corrupt and partisan DOJ, FBI, and IRS leadership, demonstrate a two-tier justice system with exemptions for the political elite.

The only remaining pathway for due process was petitioning the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy to enforce AICPA professional standards against the Foundation’s former national audit firm BKD, LLP (BKD has since merged with another national firm forming Forvis, LLP).

BKD issued slapdash audits and tax returns (under penalties of perjury) for 13 years.  By dismissing AICPA professional standards and IRS compliance, the firm created a veneer of legitimacy for the Clinton Foundation.  BKD’s main fiduciary obligation is to serve and protect the public interest, not the Clinton Foundation.

I filed a complaint with the Arkansas Board against BKD, LLP. The complaint (59 allegations), relying on public documents, charged BKD with professional misconduct and failure to comply with the following AICPA standards and the IRS Code. The complaint’s primary focus is the Clinton Foundation’s 2011 amended IRS Form 990 tax return dated November 16, 2015, and the underlying 2011 audited financial statements.

The firm filed a condescending and indefensible response dismissing the allegations and smearing me as a “conspiracy theorist.”  The reply crossed a bright line including a veiled threat of AICPA disciplinary action against me.  BKD’s Chief Operating Officer Eric Hansen served at the time as the AICPA Chairman.

Rampant Irregularities

The complaint covered substantial irregularities and documented a culture of deceit, with the more flagrant irregularities abstracted below.

Trustee Oversight & Control Failures

The Foundation’s Board of Trustees engaged Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, to review its “decadal” (Or is it decadent?) governance. Their report was issued in late December 2011. WikiLeaks released the draft document widely covered in media outlets.  The governance review found severe organizational and internal control weaknesses jeopardizing the Foundation’s tax-exempt status.  Why did BKD ignore the flashing warning signals?

Material Errors and Omissions in 990 Tax Returns

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential run caused the Foundation to evaluate, amend, and refile its tax filings for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 on November 16, 2015.  The justification was to disclose foreign government grants and the Clintons’ paid speeches on behalf of the Foundation because the few lines on the returns were previously left blank.  Foundation President Dr. Donna Shalala’s issued a logic-defying press release that the Foundation exceeded all legal tax requirements and “that the errors did not require us to amend our returns.”  The accounting fees for 2015 were a staggering $2.7 million suggest otherwise.

I compared the original returns line-by-line to the amended returns.  The reconciliations found extensive and material revisions of over 200 items each year.  Substantial changes occurred in the reporting categories in the Balance Sheet, Statement of Functional Expenses, and Revenue Statement.  These changes required the Foundation to reissue the consolidated financial statements or compulsory for BKD to rescind its audit opinions; however, neither happened.  The Foundation routinely restated its financial statements; for instance, the re-issuance of 2010 due to offsetting marginal errors of just 2.2% of revenue and expense.

“Attorneys and accountants should be the pillars of our system of taxation, not the architects of its circumvention” – Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson

(Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 9/25/2022)  (Archive)

April 22, 2021 – Judge orders IRS to reveal if it has criminally investigated the Clinton Foundation

“A U.S. Tax Court judge has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to reveal if it criminally investigated the Clinton Foundation, directing the agency to cure a mysterious “gap” in its records in the case.

Most of the proceedings in the case involving the Clinton Foundation and the whistleblowers Lawrence W. Doyle and John F. Moynihan have been sealed, but U.S. Tax Court Judge David Gustafson authorized the release of an April 22 ruling to Just the News this week.

In it, Gustafson remanded the case back to the IRS Whistleblower Office (WO), saying the agency’s claim there was no criminal investigation against the Clinton Foundation “was not supported by the administrative record and thus constituted an abuse of discretion.”

“The WO must further investigate to determine whether CI [criminal investigative division] proceeded with an investigation based on petitioners’ information and collected proceeds,” the judge ruled. “… It seems clear we should remand the case to the WO so that it can explore this gap.”

File
 Lawrence W. Doyle 088.pdf

While ordering the IRS to reveal whether the Clinton Foundation was criminally investigated, the judge declined the whistleblowers’ request to take an Arkansas state official’s deposition or compel discovery in the case, saying such actions were “outside the scope of proper discovery.”

“Petitioners evidently look forward to a trial in which they hope to prove wrongdoing and tax evasion by the target entities and to prove dereliction of duty by the IRS,” he added. “There will be no such trial in this case.” (Read more: JusttheNews, 5/11/2021)  (Archive)