Fund II Foundation lists Smith as founding director and president. Its high-profile contributions have gone to fight breast cancer afflicting women, create science programs for Black students and preserve the homes of Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent Black Americans.
Beyond paying $139 million, Smith agreed to abandon refund claims of $182 million based on charitable deductions filed in 2018 and 2019.
Smith took steps to come clean after Banque Bonhote urged him in November 2013 and January 2014 “to report his non-compliance” to the IRS, according to his admission. He applied in March 2014 for amnesty from prosecution through an IRS program used by more than 56,000 Americans who failed to report offshore assets. But the IRS rejected him.
He then filed a false report of foreign bank and financial accounts, known as an FBAR, failing to declare his financial interest in his BVI and Swiss accounts, he admitted. He also submitted a false tax return that failed to declare his interest in those accounts.
Smith’s false filings continued. He entered a “streamlined” disclosure program but filed false FBARs and tax returns spanning several years, according to his admission.
“Smith willfully failed to report on Streamlined Tax Returns over $200 million of partnership income” distributed to Flash from private equity funds from 2005 through 2014, according to the statement of facts.
Smith has been represented by lawyers of some renown in the white-collar and tax defense world. His non-prosecution agreement was signed by five lawyers, including three from Kirkland & Ellis, the firm where William Barr worked until he became President Donald Trump’s attorney general.
Two of the Kirkland & Ellis lawyers are Mark Filip, a former deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush, and W. Neil Eggleston, a former White House counsel for President Barack Obama.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.