DMorgan
You niggas is EXCOMMUNICADO!!!
A dodgy deal helped make him a billionaire. It worked, until now.
Billionaire Robert F. Smith says “I should never have put myself in this situation.”
Over the past five years, Robert F. Smith became one of the nation’s most prominent billionaire philanthropists.
During that time, he put up $20 million for Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. He donated tens of millions more to national parks, breast cancer research, Carnegie Hall and paying the student debts of a Morehouse College graduating class. This spring, he pushed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump to have $10 billion in government coronavirus relief set aside for lenders in low-income neighborhoods.
Throughout this munificence, though, Smith had a secret: He’d played a role in what federal prosecutors allege was the biggest tax evasion scheme in U.S. history, an effort by his longtime associate, Texas billionaire Robert Brockman, to hide $2 billion from tax authorities in an offshore scheme featuring a computer program called Evidence Eliminator and code names such as “Redfish” and “Snapper.”
Smith, whose code name was “Steelhead,” according to prosecutors, has admitted to hiding profits in offshore accounts and filing false tax returns for ten years. He is cooperating with investigators and faces no charges. But his complicity in the alleged tax crimes has stunned the many who had seen a role model in the charismatic 57-year-old entrepreneur, often ranked as the wealthiest Black person in the United States. These two sides of Smith — the impressive generosity on one and the admitted tax evasion on the other — may be hard to reconcile. But they are inextricable, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post, including charity filings with tax authorities and Department of Justice court filings.
Both aspects stem from a deal Smith and Brockman made 20 years ago, one that joined the unlikely pair in a venture with vast ambitions. Smith, the determined son of Denver schoolteachers, was then an aspiring financier; Brockman was older and far wealthier, a man who had already made a fortune with a company that sold software for the automotive industry.
Brockman’s offer set Smith up with his own private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, and more than $1 billion in capital to invest, according to Smith’s statement to prosecutors. That arrangement eventually allowed Smith to become a billionaire himself. But the partnership also entailed an offshore trust to “willfully conceal” $200 million of Smith’s earnings from tax authorities, according to Smith’s agreement with prosecutors. While that account in recent years has become the source of much of his charity, it also ran afoul of rules requiring the disclosure of offshore accounts for tax purposes, according to the court documents. It was a Faustian bargain, in other words, but at the time Smith saw mainly its benefits. It would be more than a decade before its downside would be revealed.
The statement that Smith and his attorneys signed put it this way: Brockman “presented this unconventional business proposal as a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer, dictating the unique terms and unorthodox structure to the arrangement. Despite any misgivings, Smith accepted [Brockman’s] offer, viewing it as a unique business opportunity he eagerly wanted to pursue.” Attorneys for Brockman, who pleaded not guilty, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Smith’s statement does not explicitly name Brockman, but uses the term “Individual A” and incorporates enough work history and biographical detail to identify that person as Brockman. Brockman, who has been released, is scheduled for a bail hearing this week. Attorneys for Smith declined to comment as well, but in a recent letter to investors, Smith wrote that the “decision made twenty years ago has regrettably led to this turmoil ... I should never have put myself in this situation.” “You can only judge people on how you know them,” said Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall in New York City, to which Smith has contributed more than $30 million. “I trust his integrity.”
Long article the rest is at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/09/smith-brockman-tax-evasion/
I would've said yes he is cause I don't really give a fuck about folks and tax evasion, hiding money in offshore accounts, etc. The only reason I'm saying no longer a role model is because he snitching.
@DOS_patos I know you and many others here excuse snitching but I still want to see what you think about your homie committing crimes.
Billionaire Robert F. Smith says “I should never have put myself in this situation.”
Over the past five years, Robert F. Smith became one of the nation’s most prominent billionaire philanthropists.
During that time, he put up $20 million for Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. He donated tens of millions more to national parks, breast cancer research, Carnegie Hall and paying the student debts of a Morehouse College graduating class. This spring, he pushed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump to have $10 billion in government coronavirus relief set aside for lenders in low-income neighborhoods.
Throughout this munificence, though, Smith had a secret: He’d played a role in what federal prosecutors allege was the biggest tax evasion scheme in U.S. history, an effort by his longtime associate, Texas billionaire Robert Brockman, to hide $2 billion from tax authorities in an offshore scheme featuring a computer program called Evidence Eliminator and code names such as “Redfish” and “Snapper.”
Smith, whose code name was “Steelhead,” according to prosecutors, has admitted to hiding profits in offshore accounts and filing false tax returns for ten years. He is cooperating with investigators and faces no charges. But his complicity in the alleged tax crimes has stunned the many who had seen a role model in the charismatic 57-year-old entrepreneur, often ranked as the wealthiest Black person in the United States. These two sides of Smith — the impressive generosity on one and the admitted tax evasion on the other — may be hard to reconcile. But they are inextricable, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post, including charity filings with tax authorities and Department of Justice court filings.
Both aspects stem from a deal Smith and Brockman made 20 years ago, one that joined the unlikely pair in a venture with vast ambitions. Smith, the determined son of Denver schoolteachers, was then an aspiring financier; Brockman was older and far wealthier, a man who had already made a fortune with a company that sold software for the automotive industry.
Brockman’s offer set Smith up with his own private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, and more than $1 billion in capital to invest, according to Smith’s statement to prosecutors. That arrangement eventually allowed Smith to become a billionaire himself. But the partnership also entailed an offshore trust to “willfully conceal” $200 million of Smith’s earnings from tax authorities, according to Smith’s agreement with prosecutors. While that account in recent years has become the source of much of his charity, it also ran afoul of rules requiring the disclosure of offshore accounts for tax purposes, according to the court documents. It was a Faustian bargain, in other words, but at the time Smith saw mainly its benefits. It would be more than a decade before its downside would be revealed.
The statement that Smith and his attorneys signed put it this way: Brockman “presented this unconventional business proposal as a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer, dictating the unique terms and unorthodox structure to the arrangement. Despite any misgivings, Smith accepted [Brockman’s] offer, viewing it as a unique business opportunity he eagerly wanted to pursue.” Attorneys for Brockman, who pleaded not guilty, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Smith’s statement does not explicitly name Brockman, but uses the term “Individual A” and incorporates enough work history and biographical detail to identify that person as Brockman. Brockman, who has been released, is scheduled for a bail hearing this week. Attorneys for Smith declined to comment as well, but in a recent letter to investors, Smith wrote that the “decision made twenty years ago has regrettably led to this turmoil ... I should never have put myself in this situation.” “You can only judge people on how you know them,” said Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall in New York City, to which Smith has contributed more than $30 million. “I trust his integrity.”
Long article the rest is at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/09/smith-brockman-tax-evasion/
I would've said yes he is cause I don't really give a fuck about folks and tax evasion, hiding money in offshore accounts, etc. The only reason I'm saying no longer a role model is because he snitching.
@DOS_patos I know you and many others here excuse snitching but I still want to see what you think about your homie committing crimes.
