Lawyer Charged in Billionaire Tax Case Dies on Eve of Trial (2)

A Houston lawyer charged with helping private equity billionaire Robert F. Smith evade taxes for more than a decade died just before he was about to go on trial.

Carlos Kepke died over the weekend in Texas, said one of his attorneys, Richard Strassberg. Kepke was 83. He was set to go on trial Monday in San Francisco federal court on charges of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by Smith, founder of Vista Equity Partners.

“Carlos always maintained that he was innocent of these charges, and ...