Wylys Appeal Billion-dollar Judgment to Fifth Circuit

© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.

By Mark Curriden

(May 18) – The bankruptcy and federal tax fraud case of Dallas entrepreneur and philanthropist Sam Wyly and his sister-in-law Dee Wyly officially moved to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week when lawyers for the family filed their opening brief seeking to reverse one of the largest tax judgments against individuals in U.S. history.

In two separately filed briefs, the Wylys claim that Bankruptcy Chief Judge Barbara Houser of Dallas committed numerous errors in her 459-page ruling in May 2016 that the offshore trusts created by the brothers Sam and Charles Wyly from 1992 to 2004 were shams designed to hide hundreds of millions of dollars from the IRS.