Eric Trump Foundation Funneled Cash For Cancerous Kids To Father's Business, Report Says

The Trump name carries privilege, but the wearer also gets a big bullseye on the back.

Eric Trump, one of the sons of President Donald Trump, was the latest member of the clan to find that out this week when Forbes magazine suggested the Eric Trump Foundation shifted money from a golf tourney for St. Jude Children’s research hospital to the for-profit Trump Organization — something the Internal Revenue Service frowns upon.

The Eric Trump Foundation invitational was held annually from 2007 to 2015 at the Trump National Golf Club in posh Westchester County north of New York. Eric Trump told Forbes that use of the golf course was free, along with drinks and entertainment.

"We get to use our assets 100% free of charge," Eric Trump told Forbes.

Not So Free

But Forbes said, "In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it's clear that the course wasn't free — that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization."

Two people directly involved told Forbes that in 2011, Donald Trump "specifically commanded that the for-profit Trump Organization start billing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Eric Trump Foundation."

Controversial Foundations Run In The Family

A spokesman for Eric Trump denied that the family business profited from a charity for kids with cancer.

"Contrary to recent reports, at no time did the Trump Organization profit in any way from the foundation or any of its activities," the spokesperson said in a statement.

This isn’t the first time a Trump foundation, or a Trump enterprise, flirted with the appearance of conflict of interest:

The operations of President Trump's own foundation were scrutinized during the 2016 campaign. Trump made contributions to the foundation from 2001 until 2008, but he is not listed as making any financial contributions since then.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating Trump's foundation over a donation that was made to a political fundraising group associated with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

"The foundation’s fundraising has been suspended since the attorney general issued a notice of violation last fall, and it cannot legally dissolve until our investigation is complete," press secretary Amy Spitalnick said in a statement to ABC News.

Likewise, First Daughter Ivanka Trump’s fashion line has come under criticism because of the potential she might profit from her role as a senior advisor to her father, with an office in the White House.

Related Link:

New York AG Has Served Trump Foundation Cease And Desist Order

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Image Credit: By Max Goldberg from USA - Trump CAUCUS, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons