Why isn't he in prison? He has to have committed the largest case of tax evasion ever and he got away with paying fines!? What a joke.
To make matters worse, 17Capital made a loan to Vista's mgmt company which Robert is using to pay the U.S. government for his criminal dealings. 17Capitals LPs are like sovereign wealth funds and pensions, so you have pensioners paying for some billionaires tax fraud. Disgusting.
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Kirkland & Ellis is a very good law firm...
The man's an inspiration. Fuck the government & their taxes.
He also outed like 2-3 other billionaires on their tax fraud in exchange so govt. had other fish to fry as part of the deal I believe.
Avoiding taxes as much as we can is our civic duty
All for avoiding taxes… but ratting out other people 🤮
he was offered 1 billion dollars when starting Vista by Brockman, and in exchange, had to arrange certain tax entities in different regions, maybe even loopholes
do you know how difficult it is to raise 1Bn dollars for a first time fund with no prior PE experience? And especially back then when asset management had zero diversity whatsoever
devil made him a deal, and he took it, but he’s done nothing but great since then. 100 billion dollar firm, tens of millions to charity and paying off student loans, and is a large reason why DE&I in the asset mgmt industry has largely improved
definitely wouldn’t say he’s a bad person by any means
He should be in prison.
Ok, you've convinced me to go to OP's side. He should do time.
lol i don't have a dog in this fight, but you do realize he was able to raise $1b BECAUSE HE STRUCTURED IT SPECIFICALLY SO THAT GUY COULD AVOID TAXES RIGHT?
He has obviously made some great decision since then including turning that initial $1b into a great return (i forget exactly), but his entire PE success is due to setting up an illegal scheme initially.
For the absence of doubt- i am not suggesting that turning that $1b-->$3B (I think it was a 3x, maybe it was more, not going to log in to find the returns)-> means that anyone could then turn this is into what Vista is today. Incredibly impressive story. Just saying I also doubt Vista would be what it is today if he hadn't agreed to structure that fund for Brockman in an illegal manner.
Against DEI but I actually agree with your take.
Any one of us on here would take the same deal and jump at the same opportunity. He got caught and managed to get away with a fine - I say power to him and if I’m ever in the same spot hopefully I can recreate that magic.
Literally who cares. Imagine being the dweeb that enjoys having to willingly fork over money to the government so they can fund injection sites and hand out needles like in SF. I wish I could evade my taxes as well
He’s an American patriot for refusing to pay taxes that would go into elected officials’ pockets
Do you guys actually condone his behaviour? Like seriously? You're giggling like school girls over some chump that did a crime that most people go to prison for. Get real. If you did this, you'd be locked up. Stop glorifying bad behaviour.
Erm, pretty sure you are wrong about the 17 Capital comment. Their NAV financing went on the balance sheet of the management company, which was subsequently used to increase GP commitment to the latest fund. Def is not a personal loan to Robert.
Wrong
Ok, how so?
I also hate paying taxes and would not do so if I thought I could get away with it.
Fuck the government
The people that enjoy paying taxes are the same people that probably think Hamas is the victim and that they “didn’t mean to do it”.
Can confirm the argument around 17Capital financing is NOT correct, use of proceeds was different, cash was not going to him personally in any shape or form (and he would not have ability to direct it in any way). Source: was involved.
Who did it go to?
It's not a "who" question, the loan was to the management company not any individual...
Struggling to close a $20bn flagship fund. Especially on the fundraising part, they started raising $20bn since mid-late 2021, and last update on that vintage is on Nov 22, that it reaches $11bn mark. This compares to Thoma Bravo raising $32.4bn in 7 months in 2022. LPs are not dumb
Looking at bro’s previous comments, he definitely has a bone to pick with Vista, and I guess WSO is the place to do it? 😂
Might have had their bumps in the past but I think saying a $100bn fund with 37.4% gross IRR will just “go down” in the next 10 years is some straight hater stuff
Happened to have a friend who left there disgusted.
Not defending OP but that IRR track record is going to drop like a brick. Their 2011 vintage still has barely distributed called capital for how old it is (1.3x DPI with a 2x net MOIC and 14% net IRR), i.e. there's some stinkers hanging around they haven't marked down and can't liquidate. 2014 largest holding in the fund is still unrealized and marked at a 10% net IRR (barely 2x on a 10 year old). 2016 fund has a bunch of single digit/negative IRR investments that will be lucky to breakeven. 2019 fund already has two write offs (investments made post covid as well so no excuse).
Well respected LPs I know have been running for 2-3 vintages now and/or sold all Vista holdings a few years back in the secondary market.
She's such a smoke show, all the hate that follows in your comment sounds like you're mad.
Has to be one of the silliest takes I've ever seen on WSO. No, the firm with $100b+ AUM is not going to disappear in the next 10 years lmfao
I think his argument was over instantly when 1) proceeds to judge a man based off his wife’s Instagram, which he follows and 2) based on his comment history, he interned at William Blair
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