The men met through business dealings at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and shared a passion for the potential of software in business. Brockman made his name with software widely used by auto dealerships and is the chairman and chief executive officer of Reynolds and Reynolds, based in Dayton, Ohio. He didn’t respond to requests for comment sent by email or made through his company and its outside public relations firm.
Smith and Vista declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on whether an investigation exists. An IRS spokesman didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
The Justice Department has discretion in deciding whom to charge, weighing factors such as the prosecution’s evidence, the strength of the defense and the way a jury would likely respond to the facts. Smith, a prominent Black businessman and philanthropist, may be viewed sympathetically by a jury in a time of protests for racial justice, lawyers said.
“The issue of jury appeal is often considered by prosecutors in cases that are a close call,” said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami who isn’t involved in the case. “If 12 jurors believe they want to acquit a defendant based on something other than the evidence, that’s their inherent right. They may believe it’s not the right time or place to bring a case against a particular defendant.”
As prosecutorial scrutiny of Smith has intensified the last few years, so has his wealth and his public profile, evidenced by his $34 million pledge to the families of nearly 400 Morehouse graduates. In an interview with Business Insider, Smith said the goal of his gifts is “liberating the human spirit.”
The co-founder of San Francisco-based Vista, Smith chairs Carnegie Hall and has received awards from Harvard, Cornell and Columbia universities. He’s graced the cover of Forbes magazine twice and was named to Bloomberg’s 50 people who defined 2019. Smith is also the only Black American who’s signed Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge. In the past five years, his personal net worth has nearly tripled, to $6 billion, Bloomberg data indicates, making him the wealthiest Black person in the country.
Over that same period, Smith and the U.S. charitable foundation he helped create have given away at least $300 million. He used his own money to pay off the Morehouse debt and to donate $20 million to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. This year, he joined Tyler Perry and Floyd Mayweather in helping to pay funeral expenses for George Floyd.
The foundation, of which he is president and founding director, gave $54 million to the National Park Foundation to acquire the homes of Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent African-Americans, $48 million to the United Negro College Fund and $37 million to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, according to its U.S. tax filings. Proceeds that flowed from his first private equity fund through the offshore entities were ultimately transferred to the foundation that made the gifts, the tax filings show.
Two years ago, Forbes offered this glimpse of Smith’s charitable drive. “I will never forget that my path was paved by my parents, grandparents and generations of African-Americans whose names I will never know,” Smith wrote when he signed the Giving Pledge to contribute half of his net worth to philanthropic causes during his lifetime. “We will only grasp the staggering potential of our time if we create on-ramps that empower ALL people to participate, regardless of background, country of origin, religious practice, gender, or color of skin.”
From seemingly different backgrounds, Smith, 57, and Brockman, 79, bonded two decades ago. The son of two high school principals in a predominantly Black neighborhood, Smith told his Morehouse audience that he got a break in grade school when he rode a bus across Denver to a wealthy neighborhood with the sort of quality education unavailable to many of his neighbors.