US President-elect Donald Trump says he will dissolve his charitable foundation, called the Trump Foundation before assuming office on January 20, 2017.
The future president released a statement on Saturday, saying he would pursue his “strong interest in philanthropy in other ways.”
He has apparently ordered his counsel to take the necessary measures to the dissolution to happen.
The foundation was a source controversy for the Trump campaign in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
In 2007, Trump used the foundation’s money to pay for a 6-foot painting of himself that his wife purchased at an auction, in violation of regulations by US tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which prohibits a charity’s officers from using the group’s funds to purchase things for their own benefit.
A Washington Post report concluded in September that the foundation is “a charity that allowed a rich man to be philanthropic for free.”
The…