If you can wade through a vitriolic dislike for Ayn Rand and a cynical misrepresentation of her philosophy, the article “Tax Evader as Super Hero” is rather interesting. It begins with the following story:
Today?s Capitalism Gone Mad story in the general press goes beyond Marx, Engels, Jonathan Swift, Mel Brooks, even the late great Ernie Kovacs. It concerns a man of mystery named Walter Anderson whom a New York Times story calls the greatest tax evader in U.S. history. Since the U.S. has the lowest rate of effective taxation on corporations and wealthy individuals in the developed world, that is quite an achievement. But the fellow, Walter Anderson, appears to be quite a character, to say the least.
First of all he has a penchant, some might say a fetish, for changing his name, which apparently started early, since his mother informed government agents that he had been born Walter Anderson Crump. He apparently developed a series of other aliases to hide his assets, dressed exclusively in Black, and somewhat like the great Chicago utilities swindler of the 1920s and 1930s, Samuel Insull, established so confusing a set of corporate entities even the prosecutors couldn?t figure them out.
But that is only the beginning. Anderson started 15 years ago with MCI, formed his own long-distance phone company, profited apparently from the deregulation and entered the business that really interested him ? space travel. The downfall of the Soviet Union enabled him to buy the rights to the Mir space station for $31 million. He then founded Rotary Rocket, a space travel business that didn?t quite work out, and then continued his telecommunications businesses, setting up “offshore entities” in the British Virgin Islands and Panama to transfer his assets.
Meanwhile, according to the U.S. government, he transferred at least $450 million out of the U.S. between 1995 and 1999. In 1998 for example, he paid only $494 total in federal taxes.
Anybody who makes over $100 million per year by privatizing space travel, while managing to pay less than $500 in taxes, deserves some consideration in our book.
See the full story for more information.