Bankrupt ex-billionaire Samuel Wyly told a judge it’s too soon for regulators to fret over what he’ll do with as much as $50 million from the planned sale of his family’s Colorado ranch, the site of six custom-built mansions, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service, which seek more than $2 billion from Wyly, have objected to his proposal, arguing he hasn’t guaranteed the proceeds won’t disappear offshore. Wyly, who helped build companies including arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels Stores Inc. before running afoul of the SEC, has said he has about a 1 percent stake in the ranch, with the rest owned by a trust on the Isle of Man. Wyly said in a bankruptcy court filing on Tuesday that the plan should be approved because the details of any sale agreement, including the treatment of the proceeds, would need additional court approval anyway. “No one on the debtor’s team is going to sit by idly if any dissipation of estate assets were to be threatened,” Wyly’s lawyer, Josiah Daniel, said in the filing.
