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Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Mon May 27, 2024 3:11 pm
by Ernie
I was surprised when reading this article today that Trump signed "bundles" of checks while he was President. I figured that CEO's and other VIP's would not have time to sign bundles of checks.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/ahead-summati ... =110516687
Madeleine Westerhout, Former Director of Oval Office Operations
Westerhout told jurors that she normally received bundles of checks in the mail from Manochio, which she would hand to Trump for his signature. Once Trump signed the checks, Westerhout said she mailed the checks back to the Trump Organization in New York.
Westerhout offered conflicting descriptions of Trump's attentiveness and intentionality when signing checks, first telling jurors that Trump examined all documents before signing them, then later testifying on cross-examination that Trump sometimes signed documents without looking them over.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Mon May 27, 2024 3:40 pm
by Ken
Ernie wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 3:11 pm
I was surprised when reading this article today that Trump signed "bundles" of checks while he was President. I figured that CEO's and other VIP's would not have time to sign bundles of checks.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/ahead-summati ... =110516687
Madeleine Westerhout, Former Director of Oval Office Operations
Westerhout told jurors that she normally received bundles of checks in the mail from Manochio, which she would hand to Trump for his signature. Once Trump signed the checks, Westerhout said she mailed the checks back to the Trump Organization in New York.
Westerhout offered conflicting descriptions of Trump's attentiveness and intentionality when signing checks, first telling jurors that Trump examined all documents before signing them, then later testifying on cross-examination that Trump sometimes signed documents without looking them over.
I think it depends on how the account is set up.
If it is a personal account then you'd have to sign personally
If it is a business account then it depends. Payroll checks are normally not signed. Some organizations require two signatures as a check against embezzlement. A lot of invoicing and payments these days are electronic and not paper checks.
When it comes to business, I don't think how Trump did things is necessarily the norm for checks or anything else.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Mon May 27, 2024 8:27 pm
by Josh
In my experience, larger organisations had policies that checks over certain amounts ($1 million, perhaps) needed CEO signatures plus the normal signature of the CFO or controller or whomever. More common in a family run business that doesn’t have fancy accounting software.
At a bigger institution, they use positive pay where check numbers plus check accounts are first uploaded to a bank, and that computer system is carefully guarded. The CFO/CEO would still review outgoing payments or budgets to ensure no shenanigans are happening.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2024 10:10 am
by Bootstrap
In this case, we have testimony from the following people, all saying that Trump personally approved expenses on this account:
- Jeffrey McConney, the former controller at the Trump Organization
- Deborah Tarasoff, the accounts payable supervisor at the Trump Organization
- Madeleine Westerhout, former Director of Oval Office Operations
Witnesses gave lots of examples of relatively small amounts that Trump had to personally approve on these accounts, and several people outlined the procedures that were followed.
I assume Trump counts as an important person. He does seem to still sign checks.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2024 10:59 am
by Ernie
Bootstrap wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:10 am
I assume Trump counts as an important person. He does seem to still sign checks.
That is obvious in what I quoted in the OP.
Did you understand my question in the OP? Maybe I did not make it clear. I'm wondering how common it is for important people, including Presidents to sign "bundles of checks" in this day and age.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2024 12:04 pm
by Bootstrap
Ernie wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:59 am
Bootstrap wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:10 am
I assume Trump counts as an important person. He does seem to still sign checks.
That is obvious in what I quoted in the OP.
Did you understand my question in the OP? Maybe I did not make it clear. I'm wondering how common it is for important people, including Presidents to sign "bundles of checks" in this day and age.
Ah, there's some subtext in my mind - the defense is trying to say that Trump was not involved in these payments. But the witnesses who would know seem to be speaking with one voice, saying that he did indeed sign the checks, and this was in keeping with his usual practice. That's what I was addressing.
I have no idea what is common for presidents, CEOs, and other very important people. I am a very unimportant person, and I sign my own checks. That's all I know.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2024 12:59 pm
by ohio jones
As an unimportant person myself, despite the efforts of airlines and hotel chains and credit card companies to convince me otherwise, I rarely sign checks. I *issue* dozens of checks each month between church, personal, and business accounts, but it's unusual to print and sign more than one a month on average. Usually because the amount is more than $10k or it needs to be hand delivered for some reason. Everything else goes through the banks' bill payment systems.
I can imagine important people might have a greater volume of largish dollar amount payments that would necessitate physical signatures. The really large amounts would be done by wire transfer.
Re: Do important people still sign checks?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2024 1:07 pm
by Ken
ohio jones wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 12:59 pm
As an unimportant person myself, despite the efforts of airlines and hotel chains and credit card companies to convince me otherwise, I rarely sign checks. I *issue* dozens of checks each month between church, personal, and business accounts, but it's unusual to print and sign more than one a month on average. Usually because the amount is more than $10k or it needs to be hand delivered for some reason. Everything else goes through the banks' bill payment systems.
I can imagine important people might have a greater volume of largish dollar amount payments that would necessitate physical signatures. The really large amounts would be done by wire transfer.
Yes. And wire transfers have more robust ways of verifying identity than a signature on a piece of paper anyway. That is really the point of signatures in the first place. To verify identity.