Ray Lane, former chairman of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), faces a $100 million tax bill in a dispute with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or IRS, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Lane is currently partner emeritus at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
According to the Bloomberg report, the IRS found that Lane participated in a "sham" tax shelter in December 2012, generating improperly claimed losses of $251 million to offset income. Lane reportedly argued the IRS was wrong to say that his partnership, Vanadium Partners Fund, lacked "legitimate business purpose."
Lane reportedly said in a television interview to Bloomberg that his advisers counseled him in 2000 to invest $25 million of his own money in a fund that backed technology startups and could be used to offset his income. Lane also said that he signed a settlement letter with the IRS in May regarding the taxes owed by him.
Lane decided to step down as chairman of HP's board of directors in April 2013, but remains on the company's board. Lane was appointed HP's executive chairman in September 2011 after having served as non-executive chairman since November 2010.
Lane has been under fire from shareholders for his role in HP's botched $11 billion acquisition of U.K. software firm Autonomy Corp. in 2011. HP incurred a non-cash impairment charge of $8.8 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, relating to the Autonomy acquisition.
HP had claimed that majority of the impairment charge was linked to serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures by Autonomy.
In May, Lane left the board of electric luxury carmaker Fisker Automotive Inc. He has also scaled back his role as a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
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