What's Robert Brockman's net worth? Texas billionaire charged with $2B tax fraud scheme, biggest in US history
Federal prosecutors have charged Texas billionaire, Robert Brockman with a $2 billion tax fraud scheme, in what is being touted as the biggest case of its kind in US history.
The software mogul is accused of withholding billions of dollars in offshore accounts, prosecutors said. The 79-year-old businessman was charged with money laundering and evidence tampering on Thursday, October 16, after allegedly hiding $2 billion of his income over a 20-year period. The 39-count indictment states the CEO of Ohio-based Reynolds and Reynolds Co, used a network of off-shore companies in Bermuda and St Kitts and Nevis to hide and launder money. At a court hearing, US Magistrate Judge, Nathaniel Cousins ordered Brockman to remain released but imposed a $1 million bond over defense objections.
Prosecutors say he used code words on encrypted emails as part of an elaborate scheme to hide assets overseas. His code name was “Permit,” for instance, while others used words like “Redfish,” “King,” “Bonefish,” “Snapper,” or “Steelhead.” “Complexity will not hide crime from law enforcement,” Attorney Dave Anderson said at a Thursday news conference announcing the charges. “We will not hesitate to prosecute the smartest guys in the room," he added.
According to a Mercury news report, among the fiery allegations in the statement, there is a reference to an infamous 2013 incident when he decided to donate $250 million to Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, which Brockman offered then inexplicably pulled weeks later. He promoted the donation, along with related demands, through an uncharged co-conspirator in the case, the complaint alleges. A spokesman for Reynolds and Reynolds said in 2013 that the event was a proposed refinancing deal involving Vista Equity Partners, Smith’s company. CBS Local reported, "According to the indictment, Brockman gave an unnamed individual detailed instructions regarding the proposed gift to the college, including talking points, and directed the person to threaten to pull out if his demands were not met. In August, he instructed the person to cancel the gift. Prosecutors say that Smith used about $2.5 million in untaxed funds to buy and upgrade a vacation home in Sonoma, California; purchase two ski properties in France; and spend $13 million to buy a property and fund charitable activities at his property in Colorado."
Brockman, who is a resident of Houston and Pitkin County, Colorado, is the chairman and CEO of Reynolds and Reynolds, a 4,300-employee company near Dayton, Ohio, that sells accounting, sales and management software to auto dealerships. The software helps set up websites, including live chats with potential customers, find loans and calculate customer payments, manage payroll and pay bills. The company issued a statement saying the allegations were outside Brockman’s work with the company and that the company is not alleged to have participated in any wrongdoing. Brockman, whose net worth is $1 billion, made much of his fortune selling software to automotive companies and by his auto software company. In 1970, Brockman established the original Universal Computer Services, Inc (UCS) as a service bureau to provide data processing services to automotive dealerships. His first office was his living room in his Houston home, where he taught himself computer programming. Later, in August 2006, Universal Computer Systems acquired Reynolds and Reynolds and merged the operations of the two companies under the Reynolds and Reynolds brand.