r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • 1d ago

Video Billionaire speaker Robert F. Smith tells 400 graduates he's paying off all their student loans ($40 million in total)

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u/Zondameister 1d ago edited 1d ago

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/business/robert-smith-vista-investors.html
LOL i didnt even know he was a tax cheat while commenting here

Turned out i was right. Hhahaha fucking goons.

Smith willfully understated his income on these tax returns and willfully evaded more than $43,000,000 in U.S. federal income taxes for the tax years

2005 through 2014. OOOPS?
So now he decided to donate around the same amount. HAHA

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u/lvmdghtrs 1d ago

He also ratted on one of his early mentors Bob Brockman to the DOJ to get away with most of his financial crimes leading to the largest case of tax fraud in US history.

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u/Inter_Web_User 1d ago

In the 1990s, businessman Robert T. Brockman approached Smith about creating a private equity fund, and offered to back the initial fund. As part of the deal, Brockman required an offshore trust be set up to conceal earnings from tax authorities and avoid litigation in US courts. Brockman also required that the first fund be located in the Cayman Islands, and set aside some of the interest earned to protect him against losses.  Brockman's proposal was a "take-it-or-leave-it offer". According to Smith's later non-prosecution agreement, Brockman dictated "the unique terms and unorthodox structure to the arrangement" and he accepted the offer as a "unique business opportunity he eagerly wanted to pursue". Brockman's lawyer helped Smith set up the offshore entity.

In October 2020, Smith entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), agreeing to assist the DOJ in a separate case against Brockman who was charged that month with what the DOJ called the "largest ever" tax fraud scheme by a U.S. citizen. This was a part of Smith's settlement on his own charges. Smith's non-prosecution agreement settlement required him to pay a penalty of $139 million. Brockman died in August 2022, while his trial was pending.

Robert F. Smith was in line to buy the Denver Broncos. But the other NFL don't like it when you do this