Although not a lot of hard-working Texas residents facing stark financial challenges and doing their best to work through them might be able to identify — even remotely — with Samuel Wyly personally, his bankruptcy-related case nonetheless commands real-world interest. We pass along its central details for our readers, believing that Wyly’s story is relevant for its strong focus on debt relief and bankruptcy protection.
Wyly’s name is perhaps familiar to some readers, given the status accorded him by Forbes as one of the richest people in the United States. According to that magazine, Wyly commanded a net worth of approximately $1 billion in 2010.
That’s a lot of coin, obviously, but Wyly says that such an impressive amount of wealth simply no longer exists. His legal advisers contend that the oft-described business tycoon lacks the funds necessary to pay civil damages for his role in an alleged fraudulent scheme that defrauded the U.S. government of scores of millions of dollars.
What government attorneys specifically alleged in a federal court was that Wyly and his brother Charles devised a complex scheme pursuant to which they hid profits from business trades in a number of overseas trusts. The Securities and Exchange Commission states that the brothers reaped more than $550 million in untaxed profits. A U.S. district court judge recently ordered Wyly and his brother’s estate (Charles died in 2011) to pay damages for the fraud. The SEC pegs the amount at close to $300 million.
Wyly says that he doesn’t have it, and his attorneys told the judge that a large penalty against him would result in a bankruptcy filing.
It did, when Wyly sought debt relief pursuant to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing made earlier this month in bankruptcy court in Dallas.
Wyly’s case certainty underscores that bankruptcy protection is potentially available to every American and that it can be invoked by individuals under diverse circumstances.
Any person having questions or concerns about personal bankruptcy can obtain accurate, candid and confidential advice from a proven debt relief attorney.
Source: Reuters, “UPDATE 2-Texas investor Sam Wyly files for bankruptcy after losing SEC fraud case,” Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax, Oct. 20, 2014