Billionaire’s Lawyers Say He Has Dementia
Robert Brockman – the business tycoon charged in the largest-ever tax case against a U.S. individual — is “facing progressive dementia that will render him unable to help in his defense, according to a legal filing citing his doctors,” according to report from Bloomberg.
According to the initial indictment, Mr Brockman, an American, is accused of using a “web of offshore entities based in Bermuda and Nevis to hide from the IRS income earned on his investments in private equity funds which were managed by a San Francisco-based investment firm.”
The story said, “Brockman, 79, was indicted on tax evasion and money laundering charges that accused him of using a complex trust structure in the Caribbean to hide $2 billion in income over two decades. His lawyers want his case moved from San Francisco, where he was indicted on Oct. 1, to Houston, where he lives and his doctors treat him.
“In a filing late Monday, physician James L. Pool said Brockman had symptoms consistent with Parkinson’s disease, parkinsonism, Lewy body dementia or some combination of them. The diagnosis can be “totally confirmed” only with an autopsy, but each results in rigid muscles, slow movements and tremors, according to Pool, a pharmacology professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
“All are characterized by progressive dementia, and in Mr. Brockman’s case, the medical reports confirm cognitive impairment, which includes, but is not limited to, both short- and long-term memory loss,” according to Pool’s declaration.
“Brockman’s lawyers have said they’ll seek a competency hearing for their client. Prosecutors are expected to oppose the claim by Brockman’s lawyers that he isn’t competent to stand trial, and the legal burden for establishing that is high. If a judge rules Brockman’s not competent, that could end the case.”
You can read the full story here on Bloomberg.
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