Federal government is trying to seize billionaire Robert Blochman’s $ 15 million fishing facility and Swiss bank account

Billionaire’s Robert Brockman may have to hand over $ 15 million in Colorado’s fishing facility and $ 77.9 million in a Swiss bank account to a federal prosecutor.

Brockman, 79, was charged last year in a case that Bloomberg described as “the biggest US tax evasion case ever against an individual” after Bloomberg did not report $ 2 billion in revenue to the Internal Revenue Service.

Billionaire, Texas, a former CEO of software company Reynolds & Reynolds, also reportedly purchased the company’s secondary debt at a discounted price in 2009 using a foreign company he “secretly manages.”

From March, Bloomberg obtained court documents showing that the government was trying to seize 143 acres of land and fishing lodges on the Flying Pan River, and a pile of cash from the Swiss Mirabeau Bank in connection with the fraud case.

The Fryingpan River, near Aspen, Colorado, is a world-famous place for fly fishing known for producing giant rainbow trout and brook trout.

Outlets reported that US prosecutors first confiscated Mirabeau’s account in October, and Swiss prosecutors frozen more than $ 1 billion in Brockman’s bank account.

The 42-page indictment against Brockman lists two Colorado properties of interest in this case.

According to the complaint, Brockman paid $ 15 million on May 17, 2005 to purchase the property of “Mountain Queen” in Pitkin County.

According to the complaint, he subsequently spent an additional $ 15 million allegedly obtained from debt fraud at the “Frying Pan Canyon Ranch” in Pitkin County on December 16, 2010.

Brockman is said to have spent an additional $ 8.2 million on refurbishing and improving the frying pan canyon property in 2014.

It was not immediately clear whether the property confiscation reported by Bloomberg included Mountain Queen’s property or his Houston mansion.

Bloomberg has obtained an asset forfeiture affidavit filed by Tedrea, the IRS’s special agent. It claims that Brockman laundered money through funds managed by billionaire Robert Smith’s private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners.

Mr Smith agreed to work with a prosecutor against Mr Brockman after admitting to offshore banks that he had illegally hid his money, the outlet reported.

Smith, America’s wealthiest black man with a net worth of about $ 7 billion, was also ordered to pay taxes and fines of $ 139 million.

According to documents filed in connection with Smith’s non-indictment agreement, Brockman and Smith have a business relationship dating back to the late 1990s.

Brockman became an investor in Smith’s Private Equity Fund in 2000, initially with a $ 300 million commitment and then increased to $ 1 billion.

Blockman, who has been acquitted of 39 cases of tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering, lives in this mansion in Houston, Texas.

Prosecutors say he owns an estimated $ 8 million worth of Houston mansion, a ski cabin in Aspen, Colorado, a private jet in Bombardier, and a 209-foot yacht (pictured).

Smith has allowed four offshore companies to hide their control using nominee trustees and corporate managers as part of a prosecution ban agreement.

Mr. Brockman, who was acquitted of 39 cases of tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering, alleged in court documents that he could not stand the trial because of dementia.

However, prosecutors believe that Brockman may have forged his mental decline.

Brockman was little known outside of Houston before the news of his indictment was reported last year. His company Reynolds and Reynolds, which he led until he was prosecuted, provides software to car dealerships.

His trial is currently undergoing a psychic hearing scheduled for June.

Authorities have been investigating Brockman for tax evasion allegations for several years, and prosecutors claim he knew about the investigation as early as 2016.

According to court documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal, prosecutors claim that Brockman began seeking a medical assessment of mental health shortly after attacking a lawyer’s home in Bermuda in 2018.

Fellow Billionaire Robert Smith, CEO of a private-equity fund that supported the alleged scheme, is cooperating in the investigation after opposed Brockman to avoid his own prosecution.

Brockman allegedly laundered some of the fraudulent money through funds managed by Vista Equity Partners

Doctors noticed in March 2019 that Brockman’s short-term memory was inadequate. However, prosecutors claim that Brockman’s doctors have conflicts of interest as millionaires work with Baylor College of Medicine, which has donated millions of dollars over the years.

They also claim that Brockman continued to lead the software company during this time, despite suspected mental decline. According to court documents, he took a cognitive test late last year and had a hard time drawing a clock, and doctors determined he had “moderate dementia.”

The case involving Brockman blames him Using the web of an offshore company in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Bermuda, he has been hiding $ 2 billion in revenue from the IRS for over 20 years.

The complaint alleges that Brockman appointed a candidate to manage offshore entities for him as a means of hiding his involvement, and he established his own encrypted email system, ” Communicate with’Snapper’, stating that you even used codewords such as “permit” and “red fish”.

Most of his property is believed to be held in a Bermuda trust that owns most of his software companies. According to court documents, the trust has assets worth at least $ 7 billion.

Due to his wealth, he could be ranked about 50th in the Forbes 400 billionaire list, but Brockman has never been on the list.

In addition to Colorado’s assets, prosecutors claim he owns an estimated $ 8 million worth of Houston mansion, Bombardier’s private jet, and a 209-foot yacht.

As the proceedings against Brockman continue, his ex-colleagues and employees paint him as a Penny Pinch billionaire who believed the IRS was unfairly chasing taxpayers.

Brockman, who has a reputation for filing proceedings, stayed at a cheap hotel and ate a frozen dinner on a business trip.

He bought second-hand furniture for the office and banned employees from smoking so the company could save on health insurance.

At the time of the indictment, Reynolds & Reynolds issued a statement that the allegations were outside the scope of work with Brockman’s company and that the company was not claimed to have been involved in any misconduct.