Brockman frequently left his Texas residence to spend summers at a vacation home he owned outside Aspen. He built the fishing lodge on the Frying Pan River so that he and his guests could avoid the 30-minute drive from Aspen, according to the Lair affidavit.
Fisherman flock to the Frying Pan River from all over because it is “one of Colorado’s best trout streams,” said John Gierach, the author of “Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing” and other acclaimed angling books. “If you’re a fisherman, it’s just a wonderful place to live.”
In 2010, Brockman arranged to acquire the Frying Pan River property in Basalt, Colorado, for $5 million, and he spent another $10 million on improvements to the river site, including building a lodge, according to the complaint.
Brockman’s land on the river is “stunning,” said Martha Cochran, former executive director of the Aspen Valley Land Trust, which holds a conservation easement on the property that bars development.
The government’s claim that property was acquired using illicit proceeds from the Reynolds & Reynolds debt deals is based in part on testimony by Evatt Tamine, a lawyer who managed Brockman’s offshore entities and is cooperating with prosecutors.
Tamine said he helped mask the billionaire’s ownership behind a limited liability company owned by a British Virgin Islands entity, Edge Capital Investments Ltd., court filings show. Edge has placed a claim on the $77.9 million in the Mirabaud account. A spokesman for Tamine declined to comment.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.