By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors said on Thursday they had charged Houston-based technology executive Robert Brockman with hiding $2 billion in income from the IRS over 20 years, in the biggest tax fraud case against an individual in U.S. history.
At the same time, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California announced he had struck a non-prosecution agreement with Robert E. Smith, the billionaire chief executive of Vista Equity Partners, in exchange for his help in securing the charges against Brockman.
At a press conference, U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson said Brockman used various offshore entities in Bermuda and Nevis to evade taxes.
He said Brockman also bought and sold debt securities in his own company, “breaking a promise to investors that he would not buy or sell his own company’s debt.”
Anderson said Smith, who famously announced at last year’s Morehouse College commencement that he would pay off the college debt of 2019 graduates, accepted responsibility for his own crimes in the scheme.
He will pay $139 million in taxes and penalties, and will abandon a $182 protective refund claim and pay interest as part of the deal.
“Although Smith willfully and knowingly violated the law, Smith has accepted responsibility and agreed to provide complete and fruitful cooperation,” Anderson said.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
