Billionaire in Record Tax Case Found Competent for Trial (2)

The judge overseeing billionaire Robert Brockman’s tax evasion case, the largest against an individual in US history, rejected his claims that dementia leaves him incompetent to stand trial.

US District Judge George C. Hanks Jr.’s decision means Brockman, 80, must defend a 39-count indictment accusing him of evading taxes on $2 billion of income and other crimes. Brockman’s lawyers argued his progressive dementia, caused by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, has accelerated recently. If his condition worsens, they could file a new incompetency claim.

Robert Brockman arrives at the federal courthouse in Houston in 2021.

Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg

“The court finds that despite Brockman’s recent health problems, the government has met its ...