The New York State Common Retirement Fund has agreed to pay as much as $350 million for shares of a Vista Equity Partners fund linked to the late billionaire Robert Brockman, an early investor in the private equity firm, according to people familiar with the matter.
A New York state workers’ pension fund is buying a portion of Point Investments’ $1.46 billion portfolio, while Ardian SAS is considering a stake that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private transactions. The pension fund has previously committed $5 billion to the Vista fund, and would be paying a 35 percent discount to Point’s stake, the people said.
Prosecutors allege Brockman controlled Point, a Bermuda-based entity, and used it to engage in the largest tax evasion scheme by a single individual in U.S. history. Brockman, who died in 2022 before standing trial, denied wrongdoing and said he did not control Point. Point filed for bankruptcy in Delaware months before his death, and is now liquidating its assets, according to court documents.
Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is the broker in the Point transaction, the people said. As with other secondary sales, Vista must approve any buyers of shares in its funds.
Representatives for Vista, Jefferies and the New York pension fund declined to comment. Point’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Brockman’s heirs declined to comment. Ardian did not comment.
Brockman was 81 when he died in August 2022 after building a multibillion-dollar fortune as a software entrepreneur and investor. He helped launch the career of Robert F. Smith by investing early in his company, Vista.
In a 2020 indictment, prosecutors accused Brockman of using a network of offshore entities, code names and disposable phones to hide $2 billion in income from the Internal Revenue Service, much of it earned through Vista investments.
The case against Brockman hinges on whether billions of dollars in offshore charitable trusts were secretly controlled by him, as prosecutors allege, or managed independently, as he claims. Prosecutors say he used the untaxed proceeds from the offshore entities to buy a Colorado fishing lodge, a private jet and a 200-foot yacht, which his attorneys deny.
In 2021, the IRS assessed Brockman $1.4 billion in taxes he said he owed from 2004 to 2018. In January 2022, he sued the U.S. to stop the agency’s immediate assessment of the levies. Days later, he filed a separate lawsuit in Tax Court, where the IRS case against his estate is ongoing.