How Trump co-opted his kid's cancer charity to line his own pockets

It seemed like Eric Trump actually started out with the best of intentions when founding his Eric Trump Foundation to support research into children's cancer by raising lots of money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the leading pediatric cancer center. He threw huge annual golf events (at the family's golf course, naturally), with all of the money raised going to the hospital because daddy didn't charge anything to use the venue and all the other costs were comped.

While it might have started out with the best of intentions on Eric's part, daddy then got ahold of him and reminded him that just looking good isn't enough if you don't profit directly. That's the picture that emerges from a Forbes investigation by Dan Alexander.

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. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.

Additionally, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has come under previous scrutiny for self-dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake rather than those of charity, apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization.

And while donors to the Eric Trump Foundation were told their money was going to help sick kids, more than $500,000 was re-donated to other charities, many of which were connected to Trump family members or interests, including at least four groups that subsequently paid to hold golf tournaments at Trump courses.

All of this seems to defy federal tax rules and state laws that ban self-dealing and misleading donors. It also raises larger questions about the Trump family dynamics and whether Eric and his brother, Don Jr., can be truly independent of their father.

In the first several years of Eric Trump's foundation, the golf tournament seemed to be functioning relatively normally, with expenses averaging about $50,000—higher than you would think would be necessary if the golf course was being offered for nothing, but not out of bounds. Then in 2011, the foundation's tax filings show the costs ballooned from $46,000 to $142,000. Why?