Donald Trump once lost $900 million in just 2 years, one of his accountants said

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Donald Trump once lost $900 million in just 2 years, one of his accountants said
Donald Trump at a rally in Minden, Nevada, on October 8, 2022. Newly released footage shows Trump complaining about his popularity with American Jews.José Luis Villegas/AP
  • Donald Trump reported a $900 million loss over 2009 and 2010, one of his accountants testified, per Bloomberg.
  • Donald Bender also said the Trump Organization reported yearly losses from 2009 to 2018, per ABC.
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Former President Donald Trump reported a $900 million operating loss in just two years, one of his accountants told a jury at the tax-fraud trial against the Trump Organization, per Bloomberg.

Donald Bender, who worked on the company's taxes for 35 years, testified Tuesday that Trump had almost $700 million in losses on his personal tax returns in 2009 and $200 million in 2010, the publication reported. Bender was the first defense witness to testify in the trial.

He also said that the Trump Organization reported losses each year between 2009 and 2018, per ABC.

When asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger if he'd prepared Trump's tax returns for free, Bender said "no" and that it was "a really big return," per Bloomberg.

Prosecutors have already told the jury in Manhattan that executives at the company received massive Christmas bonuses, which they said was part of a scheme to avoid payroll taxes.

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Bender said that he "probably would have had a heart attack" if he'd seen the lists of bonuses, Insider's Laura Italiano reported. He hadn't seen them until prosecutors presented them to him last year, he said.

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in executive pay each year from tax authorities. He admitted that over a span of 15 years the company had given him free perks worth around $1.8 million which were omitted from his tax forms and tax returns, including a Hudson riverfront apartment, matching Mercedes' for him and his wife, and tuition for his grandchildren's private schools.

Weisselberg was ordered to pay nearly $2 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties.

Trump himself is not a defendant in the case, but his company faces 15 charges of tax conspiracy and records fraud and could be ordered to pay up to $1.6 million in penalties if found guilty. Trump has called the trial "very unfair."

As of September, Trump was worth around $3.2 billion, Forbes reported. He was first listed as a billionaire in the publication's 1988 rankings.

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