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Texan billionaire Robert Brockman sued an Australian for stealing $20 million from his trust in 2020 [1]. A few months later, he was indicted for hiding $2 bil

Texan billionaire Robert Brockman sued an Australian for stealing $20 million from his trust in 2020 [1]. A few months later, he was indicted for hiding $2 billion of income from the IRS [2]. He died before trial took place anyway.. 1- https://amp.smh.com.au/national/australian-barrister-denies-us20m-theft-from-a-billionaire-s-trust-20200522-p54vl6.html https://amp.smh.com.au/national/australian-barrister-denies-... 2- https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ceo-multibillion-dollar-software-company-indicted-decades-long-tax-evasion-and-wire-fraud https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ceo-multibillion-dollar-softw...

chatmasta 3y ago
I wonder if the target of his civil lawsuit could have ratted him to the IRS and collected a whistleblower payment...
- mjan22640 3y ago
  how much is that?
  - chatmasta 3y ago
    Apparently between 15 and 30 percent of the recovered proceeds: > In general, the IRS will pay an award of at least 15 percent, but not more than 30 percent of the proceeds collected attributable to the information submitted by the whistleblower. https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office
    - hinkley 3y ago
      On (taxes and fines on) 2 billion? That’s practically conspiracy-to-whistleblow territory. Get a couple coworkers to help you collect evidence.
      - hiatus 3y ago
        You might be interested to know that there are apparently companies out there that identify people within organizations that may have the access and appropriate demeanor and attempt to get them to whistleblow. It was covered in an episode of Darknet Diaries. https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/80/ https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/80/
        selimthegrim 3y ago
        Not barratry, not champerty, is there a term of art for this?
MiscCompFacts 3y ago
Did he actually die, or conveniently “die”? I guess it’s hard to know.
- mikeyouse 3y ago
  He'd be 82 so it's not implausible that he actually died last year - though he claimed he couldn't participate in his defense against the IRS charges since he had dementia and the government called 'bullshit' on that. Amusingly, the government has some funny details like he learned that his Bermuda-based co-conspirator had been raided by tax officials while on a fishing trip in Alaska, and then 1 day later emailed a neurologist seeking an appointment to diagnose dementia. Looks like it was a successful Trump-like attempt to just delay things forever by filing dozens of motions; First mention of a competency hearing was in January 2020, they assigned experts, delayed the examination a bunch of times, appealed certain aspects of it, eventually in August 2020 the experts found him competent, which he then appealed again, and again and again -- after several more hearings and briefs where his lawyers lied about the expert testimony, it was nearly 15 months later that he was formerly found competent to stand trial in May 2021 Vista Partners evaded billions in taxes for almost two decades, it was investigated and exposed in 2018, IRS/DOJ filed charges in 2020, his partner pleaded guilty in late 2020, Brockman was charged in Jan 2021, found competent in May 2022 and then died in August 2022 a free man. Sounds like a real scumbag.
  - bozhark 3y ago
    Sounds alive

chatmasta 3y ago

I wonder if the target of his civil lawsuit could have ratted him to the IRS and collected a whistleblower payment...

mjan22640 3y ago
how much is that?
- chatmasta 3y ago
  Apparently between 15 and 30 percent of the recovered proceeds: > In general, the IRS will pay an award of at least 15 percent, but not more than 30 percent of the proceeds collected attributable to the information submitted by the whistleblower. https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office
  - hinkley 3y ago
    On (taxes and fines on) 2 billion? That’s practically conspiracy-to-whistleblow territory. Get a couple coworkers to help you collect evidence.
    - hiatus 3y ago
      You might be interested to know that there are apparently companies out there that identify people within organizations that may have the access and appropriate demeanor and attempt to get them to whistleblow. It was covered in an episode of Darknet Diaries. https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/80/ https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/80/
      - selimthegrim 3y ago
        Not barratry, not champerty, is there a term of art for this?

MiscCompFacts 3y ago

Did he actually die, or conveniently “die”? I guess it’s hard to know.

mikeyouse 3y ago
He'd be 82 so it's not implausible that he actually died last year - though he claimed he couldn't participate in his defense against the IRS charges since he had dementia and the government called 'bullshit' on that. Amusingly, the government has some funny details like he learned that his Bermuda-based co-conspirator had been raided by tax officials while on a fishing trip in Alaska, and then 1 day later emailed a neurologist seeking an appointment to diagnose dementia. Looks like it was a successful Trump-like attempt to just delay things forever by filing dozens of motions; First mention of a competency hearing was in January 2020, they assigned experts, delayed the examination a bunch of times, appealed certain aspects of it, eventually in August 2020 the experts found him competent, which he then appealed again, and again and again -- after several more hearings and briefs where his lawyers lied about the expert testimony, it was nearly 15 months later that he was formerly found competent to stand trial in May 2021 Vista Partners evaded billions in taxes for almost two decades, it was investigated and exposed in 2018, IRS/DOJ filed charges in 2020, his partner pleaded guilty in late 2020, Brockman was charged in Jan 2021, found competent in May 2022 and then died in August 2022 a free man. Sounds like a real scumbag.
- bozhark 3y ago
  Sounds alive