Can I get around an RMD this way?

President of a Chamber of Commerce currently has a Simple IRA.  They are staring a 401(k) Plan in 2020.

He will turn 70.5 in 2020.

He want's to avoid an RMD.  My reading of the rules says that for any IRA, there is no "if still employed" rule, and an RMD must be made.

But what if they liquidate the account on December 28, 2019, and don't deposit the check in the 401(k) plan until Jan 15, 2020?

This way the IRA has zero balance on 12/31/19.  The 401(k) plan won't have any balances until 2020.

As always, your thoughts are appreciated.

This will not work. See IRS Publication 590-B, When Must You Withdraw Assets? (Required Minimum Distributions), Page 7 

Outstanding rollovers. The IRA account balance is adjusted by outstanding rollovers that aren't in any account at the end of the preceding year.

I didn't think it would work.  Otherwise everyone would just close their IRAs the last week of December and open new ones two weeks later.