Smith's agreement to cooperate has put him on a path away from indictment." Smith committed serious crimes, but he also agreed to cooperate. Attorney David Anderson said in a written statement at the time of Smith's settlement. "It is never too late to do the right thing," U.S. The case also involves Houston billionaire Robert Brockman, who was indicted in October by a federal grand jury on 39 charges, including tax fraud, wire fraud, evidence tampering and money laundering. charitable foundation where Smith is president and founding director. Some funds from those entities went into a U.S. The investigation was into whether Smith was actually the beneficial owner of Caribbean-based entities that received proceeds from his company's first private equity fund. Smith admitted liability for additional taxes owed and for failing to properly file foreign bank account reports but would not be prosecuted, the Justice Department said in October. Smith also agreed to abandon claims for refunds of $182 million that were filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Justice Department announced that Smith had agreed to pay $139 million in penalties to end a four-year investigation into alleged tax law violations. The firm's news release made no mention of Smith's tax evasion case, and a spokesperson for Smith told Forbes magazine that Sheth's departure was not related to the case, the magazine reported.īut Sheth's departure comes little more than a month after the U.S. Smith is founder, chairman and CEO of Austin-based Vista Equity Partners. On behalf of the Vista family, we wish him the very best in his future endeavors," Smith said in a written statement. "I want to thank Brian for his partnership and contributions to Vista's success – from working together to build an engineered solution to private equity, to establishing a standard of excellence across the Vista ecosystem. In the news release, Vista Equity said Sheth "played a leading role in key portfolio company acquisitions, team development and sales which generated market-leading performance and returns for Vista's investors." Sheth, 45, will "depart the firm effective immediately," Vista Equity said in a news release sent out on Thanksgiving afternoon. Brian Sheth is leaving Austin-based Vista Equity Partners.Ĭentral Texas billionaire Brian Sheth is resigning as president of Austin-based Vista Equity Partners in the wake of a highly publicized tax evasion case against Vista Equity founder, chairman and CEO Robert F.