Dallas-based billionaire Sam Wyly has filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay anywhere from $200 million to $455 million for his involvement in a massive offshore fraud scheme that netted him and his brother more than $550 million, MLive.com reported today. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled in September that Wyly and his late brother Charles Wyly, Jr. were involved in a 13-year fraud in which the two created 17 trusts and 40 subsidiary companies before hiring a team of lawyers and an offshore accountant to hold records outside the U.S. The SEC outlines a system of trusts in the Isle of Man that Business Insider reports have earned the brothers, the one-time owners of the arts and crafts retail chain Michael Stores Inc., $553 million in untaxed profits over a decade of hidden trades in four companies that they controlled. Scheindlin said that the judgment against Wyly and his brother's estate is among the largest ever imposed against individuals. Sam Wyly made Forbes' list of the 400-richest Americans in 2010 with a net worth of $1 billion. The $455 million figure is the result of $195 million owed plus interest payments.
