Software tycoon Robert Brockman, 79, possesses the usual billionaire accoutrements: Mansion, yacht, private jet, and Aspen ski cabin. He’s also an accused tax crook. Federal prosecutors have charged him with 39 counts of tax evasion, wire fraud, and money laundering.
Brockman (blank stare at left) “was charged last year with hiding about $2 billion in income from the IRS in a web of offshore entities in Bermuda and secret bank accounts over a span of 20 years,” the U.K.-based tabloid Daily Mail reported.
And now his lawyers argue he has dementia that prevents him from standing trial, but prosecutors believe he’s faking it to avoid prosecution. A competency hearing has been scheduled in his case. Brockman remained CEO of his company, which develops and sells auto dealership management software, until he was indicted. Then he began to forget things like where his concealed offshore bank accounts are.
He began asking doctors to document his “dementia” right after his Bermuda attorney’s office was raided for documents related to his alleged tax swindles. A billionaire can shop for any diagnosis he wants. His doctors are affiliated with a medical school to which he’s donated millions.
And, prosecutors contend, his “dementia” didn’t prevent him from sending coded emails or destroying evidence that could send him to prison. Nor did it keep him from buying up vacation homes and ski properties in Colorado, California, and the European Alps.
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