DOJ takes Texas billionaire into billion 2 2 billion tax fraud scheme


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal prosecutor on Thursday charged Texas billionaire Robert Brockman with a 2 billion tax evasion scheme that he says is the largest such case against an American.

Justice Department officials said in a news conference that Brockman, 79, had been hiding more than 20 years of income through the web of shfashore entities in Bermuda and Nevis and secret bank accounts in Bermuda and Switzerland. Prosecutors announced that the CEO of a private equity firm supporting the plans would co-operate in the investigation.

Robert and Dorothy Brockman attend an intimate El Fresco dinner in Houston on Tuesday evening, May 17, 2011, at the home of Phoebe and Bobby Tudor, celebrating the groundbreaking of James Turel’s Rice University Sky Space Project. Feder

The 39-count charge was filed Thursday with Br Br Kamen, chief executive officer of Ohio-based software firm Reynolds and Reynolds Co., for tax evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes.

The tax is appropriate today for Americans who got the filling extension.

The plaintiff also announced that Robert F. Smith, founder and chairman of Vista Equity Partners, would cooperate in the investigation and pay 139 139 million for the settlement of his tax investigation. Smith, 57, stunned the senior class last year when he promised to starve a more fully graduate student loan debt at More Historically Black All-Men College, Morehouse.

File – 22 Oct In October, 2019, file photo, billionaire businessman Robert F. Smith speaks after receiving the WEB Dubois Medal for his contribution to black history and culture, during a ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

“Complexity will not hide crimes from law enforcement. Sophistication does not protect against federal criminal charges,” said David L., a U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. “We don’t hesitate to prosecute clever boys in the room.”

Brockman appeared in federal court from Houston on Thursday through Zoom. Abraham Simmons, a spokesman for California’s Northern District, said he pleaded not guilty to all counts and was released on a 1 1 million bond.

“Mr. Brockman has not been convicted, and we hope to defend him against these charges,” his lawyer, Catherine Kennelly, said in an email.

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Prosecutors said Brockman used encrypted emails with code names including Permit, Snapper, Redfish and Steelhead to carry out the fraud and ordered the evidence to be tampered with or destroyed.

Brock Cayman, a resident of Houston and Pitkin County, Colorado, is the chairman and CEO of Reynolds and Reynolds, a company of 4,300 employees near Dayton, Ohio, which sells accounting, sales and management software at auto to dealerships. The software helps set up websites, including live chats with potential customers, find loans and manage customer payments, payroll and management bills.

Reynolds and Reynolds said in a statement that the allegations were outside Brockman’s work with the company and that the company was not accused of participating in any malpractice.

In 2013, a charitable trust founded by Brockman’s late father withdrew a 250 million donation to Center College, a small liberal school in Danville, Kentucky, where Brockman attended classes and once served as chairman of the board of trustees.

At the time the school said it was due to a “significant capital market event” that did not fill out. A Reynolds and Reynolds spokesman said in 2013 that the event was a refinancing deal involving Smith’s company, Vista Equity Partners.

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According to the indictment, Brock Kamen gave the college ledge anonymous detailed instructions about the proposed gift, including communication issues, and threatened to pull the person out if his demands were not met. In August Gust, he instructed the person to cancel the gift.

Prosecutors say Smith used about $ 2.5 million in untaxed funds to buy and upgrade a vacation home in Sonoma, California; Buy two ski properties in France; And spend 13 13 million on property and charitable activities on his property in Colorado.

Anderson was applauded for taking the plunge, despite the serious nature of his crimes, which took place between 2000 and mid-2015.

“Smith’s agreement to cooperate has kept him from acquittal.”

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In 2019, Smith announced to the graduating class at Morehouse K College Ledge that they would pay off the entire class of student loan debt, assuming they would pay the graduates “further.” The estimated cost was 40 million.

File – In this May 19, 2019, file photo, billionaire technology investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith announced that he would provide grants to eliminate the entire 2019 graduate class student debt at Morehouse College in Atlanta. DOJ charges

B ranks Smith # 461 on his list of billionaires with a fortune of over 5 5 billion.

He founded tech investment firm Vista in 2000, and Forbes reports that he now has assets of more than 50 50 billion and is “one of the few private equity firms to post an annual return of 22% from the start.” Vista has office fees in San Francisco and Auckland.

Vista did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The story was contributed by associate press writers Tom Krisher, Juliet Williams and Jack Bleiberg.