How the New York Times uncovered the Trump family's alleged tax evasion schemes

Two years ago, Susanne Craig received an anonymous envelope in the mail from the Trump Tower. Inside, was a copy of Donald Trump's 1995 tax return. 

That piece of mail set off an investigation by Craig and her colleagues David Barstow and Russ Buettner that uncovered, among other things, that Trump received at least $413 million US from his father Fred Trump over the decades — much of that through dubious tax dodges, including outright fraud.

The 15,000-word Times report contradicts Trump's portrayal of himself as a self-made billionaire who started with just a $1-million loan from his father.

The president, his lawyer and the White House have all issued statements denying the newspaper's findings. The New York state tax department told The Associated Press that it is reviewing the allegations and "vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation."

Craig spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about how the story unfolded. Here is part of their conversation.

Just describe what you have been up to in the past few years, what you have unearthed since [2016]?

We've just continued to push finances and just continued to dig. And, as part of that, we've examined tens of thousands of public documents and we also got access to thousands and thousands of confidential documents from Fred Trump's real estate empire. 

That included documents from his businesses, financial records, tax returns, his personal tax returns, his personal bank records and also financial information from partnerships and companies that President Donald Trump was a partner in.

How would you characterize the charges you're putting out here concerning Donald Trump, his family and the family's empire?

We found several instances, based on the documents that we looked at, where Donald Trump participated in fraudulent tax schemes.

What evidence do you have for that?

We have bank records, tax returns and financial documents of dozens of companies that were controlled by Fred Trump and also information from partnerships that Donald Trump was a party to. 

Can we talk about what happened with the huge numbers of loans that Donald Trump received from his father that had grown to the millions of dollars. How did he cover for those?

We uncovered in the documents ... at least $61 million in dollars in loans that Fred Trump extended to Donald Trump.

We also found that Donald Trump received, over Fred Trump's lifetime ... more than $400 million from his father.

The All County Building Supply & Maintenance. Can you tell us what that was?

Fred Trump was getting older, into his '80s. He owned not only a huge number of buildings in the New York area worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but he was also sitting on a huge amount of cash. 

And the Trump children — Donald Trump and his siblings — realized that at some point he was going to die and that money was going to be subject to a 55 per cent inheritance tax.

So what the Trump kids did, it's pretty incredible.

For his buildings, [Fred Trump] would buy everything from fridges and stoves to boilers to, you know, materials for roofs. 

And then one day a company called All County was created and suddenly All County started doing all the buying for Fred Trump's empire.

They would pay $300 for new fridges, $300 for a new stove, $500 for a new air conditioner. But then they would create a separate receipt and they would mark it up anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent and send it up to Fred.

And the difference on that was pocketed by All County, which was controlled by Donald Trump and his siblings.

It allowed them to drain huge amounts — millions of dollars in cash — from their father's empire so that it would not be subject to the death tax. 

Those padded invoices were used to justify rent increases in the rent-regulated buildings.

Yeah, it's incredible. They then turned around and submitted them to city and state officials to justify the rent increases.

So these fraudulent activities that you uncovered in this investigation ... how much of it actually is directed at Donald Trump?

Donald was a shareholder in All County. He was aware of what was going on and he was involved in the establishment of it. 

The way Trump's lawyer has responded to your investigation, Charles Harder ... is quite interesting, the wording of it. "The affairs were handled by [other Trump] family members who are not experts" and that they relied on "licensed professionals to ensure full compliance with the law." ... Does he not have legal cover for what happened here?

Our reporting led us to believe that he was involved in it and he knew of it, and we know that he benefited financially from it.

Donald Trump is presented, is understood to have been a self-made man. ...  In what way does it fit into your story about fraud as to how Donald Trump benefited, profited from that mythology?

He's benefited greatly over the years from this lie that has been repeated over and over and over.

I mean, it's a spectacular con. 

He appropriated his father's wealth and then, as his life went on, he then started to diminish his father's achievements.

This story — through the records that we found, in the tax returns — I think is beginning to set that story straight.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from Associated Press. Produced by Sarah Jackson.