Robert Brockman, billionaire indicted in $2 billion tax case, dies at 83

In 2020, billionaire Robert Brockman died, a man who was indicted in what has been called the largest tax evasion case against an individual in the United States. Brockman's death was confirmed by his lead attorney, Kathy Keneally. Additional details and the cause of death were not immediately available.

His lawyers had been arguing in court that he had dementia and was incompetent to stand trial. A judge in May ruled him competent and set a February 2023 trial date.

Brockman, a Florida native and Houston resident whose fortune has been estimated by Forbes as $4.7 billion, was the former CEO of Reynolds Reynolds, an Ohio-based software company that provides solutions to businesses.

In October 2020, the government charged him with 39 counts of evading taxes on $2 billion in gains, wire fraud, money laundering and other offenses. He had pleaded not guilty.

The Department of Justice said in its indictment that the scheme to conceal billions in income from the IRS spanned decades.

The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, David L. Anderson, said at the time that a $2 billion tax fraud is the largest tax charge against an individual in the U.S.

Keneally, his lead lawyer and long-time tax specialist, was the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's tax division from 2012 to 2014.

According to court records, Robert Smith, Brockman's former business associate and the wealthiest black citizen in the U.S. was to be a key witness against him. Smith was escaped by admitting to evading taxes, paying $139 million in taxes and penalties, and agreeing to cooperate, records show.

In the criminal case against Brockman, the allegation that he avoided taxes through an offshore charitable trust that prosecutors said was secretly controlled by him was also at issue, and he said he was independent.

Prosecutors said that he used ill-gotten gains to buy a Colorado fishing lodge, a private jet and a 200 foot yacht. The Aspen Times reported in 2021 that the government filed paperwork to seize the 100 acre fishing retreat in the Rockies.

It was not immediately clear how Brockman's death would affect the government's ability to recover the taxes it says are owed.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Dorothy, son Robert Brockman IIBrockman II, a brother and two grandchildren, according to Bloomberg.