Wednesday 17 August 2022 07:25 PM America's richest black man Robert Smith bought lavish properties with ... trends now
Billionaire tax cheat Robert Smith put up his girlfriend in a lavish apartment using business funds and bought luxury properties around the world using untaxed income, court documents claim.
A federal investigator's affidavit lists a 300-acre ranch in Colorado, a club and condos in the French Alps, a $60million New York penthouse and a Sonoma vacation home among the extravagant purchases he made with undeclared gains.
Smith, America's richest black man, admitted to illegally hiding tens of millions of dollars from the IRS in offshore tax havens and was slapped with $139 million in penalties last year – but avoided jail in a controversial non-prosecution agreement.
He was ensnared by Treasury investigators as part of the biggest tax bust in history. They accused Smith's business partner, hedge fund billionaire Robert Brockman, of hiding $2 billion from the government. Brockman, who had been suffering from dementia, died on August 5.
Smith, 59, cut his teeth as an investment banker and became the founder and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in 2000. The company made a killing on investments in computer companies, and has risen to become the fourth largest enterprise software firm in 2019 with $46billion of funding, beaten only by Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.
He had hoped his sweetheart deal with prosecutors would minimize his embarrassment. His lawyers have since fought tooth and nail to keep his business and personal affairs from spilling out into the courts, and to keep their client from having to testify in public.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com reveal billionaire tax cheat Robert Smith used business funds and untaxed income to buy several luxury properties around the world
The affidavit reveals Smith put up his girlfriend in a lavish $60million New York City apartment using business funds. The documents did not specify which apartment, but he owns this penthouse in Chelsea, Manhattan
Smith bought two ski condos and The White Pearl. a 'downtown restaurant/nightclub', in the French alpine town of Megève for €5.3million, the affidavit said
One of his purchases is the Boulder River Ranch, a 5 bed 9 bath, 6,598 sq. ft. home on 300 acres in Black Hawk, Colorado. Satellite images show a tennis court by the riverside ranch, with a fishing lake and its own land stretching for miles around it
Even this month Smith's lawyers were filing a flurry of motions in Brockman's tax prosecution case to keep legal filings about Smith sealed – and the billionaire reportedly had his three top attorneys all sit in a Texas federal court to monitor proceedings.
But with the feds attacking from all angles in the gargantuan tax case, tantalizing pieces of information are starting to leak out, revealing how Smith spent some of his untaxed millions.
Smith's business partner, hedge fund billionaire Robert Brockman was accused of hiding $2 billion from the government. Brockman died on August 5
One such leak comes from another prosecution, of Smith and Brockman's accountant, Carlos Kepke, for constructing the allegedly illegal offshore schemes.
On June 3 this year, prosecutors lodged a filing that included an affidavit from a Treasury Special Agent, laying out Smith's tax scheme and how he spent his money.
The affidavit includes information from a private investigator hired by Smith's ex wife Suzanne McFayden amid their bitter divorce.
The PI found that 'Smith had his business pay for, and treat as business-related expenses, the rental of a luxury New York City apartment and living expenses of Smith's then-girlfriend,' Special Agent Trista Merz wrote in the affidavit, dated August 2018.
In divorce filings, McFayden cited infidelity as the reason for her and Smith's split.
It may be that these are just the kind of embarrassing personal details that Smith's army of attorneys are trying to keep under wraps.
Whatever the reason, one tax probe expert told the New York Post the push for secrecy from the billionaire's attorneys was odd.
A federal investigator's affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com lists several properties as extravagant purchases Smith made with undeclared gains
Smith bought his Colorado ranch in parcels between 2009 and 2013 using more than $12million of untaxed income, and a further $22million renovating it, the affidavit said, adding that he used his attorney cousin Wayne Vaden to disburse the funds
The billionaire used $2.5million from his offshore account in the BVI to buy 'a vacation home for his family' in Sonoma, California
'The family used the ski condominiums as a weekend and holiday getaway where their children learned how to ski,' Special Agent Merz wrote. Smith allegedly paid rent on the homes to his own company to conceal his purchase of them using his unreported income
A private investigator found that 'Smith had his business pay for, and treat as business-related expenses, the rental of a luxury New York City apartment and living expenses of Smith's then-girlfriend,' Special Agent Trista Merz wrote in the affidavit, dated August 2018
'It's very unusual … I certainly never saw anything like it during my time working on these cases,' said Victor Song, a former chief of IRS Criminal Investigations, now COO of forensic accounting company Integritas3.
The affidavit includes information from a private investigator hired by Smith's ex wife Suzanne McFayden amid their bitter divorce
read more from dailymail.....
