Billionaire Robert Brockman ruled competent to stand trial in biggest individual tax fraud case

The largest tax-evasion case in the U.S. can proceed to trial, a judge ruled this week.Billionaire Robert Brockman, who faces multiple charges of tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering, is mentally competent to stand trial, according to a decision issued Monday by Judge George Hanks, Jr., in the Southern District of Texas. The court ruling quoted from testimony and emails sent by Brockman that Hanks said showed evidence he was able to understand and express complex thoughts."Brockman continued to run the billion-dollar Reynolds company — and, by all available evidence, run it well — for nearly a year after [a] second examination declared him incompetent to stand trial and for seven months after his criminal attorneys told the Justice Department that he would be resigning because his cognitive abilities had declined to the point where prosecuting him would violate fundamental principles of due process," Hanks wrote.Attorneys for Brockman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.