REPUTATION LAUNDRY

Tax-Cheat Billionaire Gets Naming Rights to New Cancer Unit

A cancer screening initiative from Mount Sinai Hospital will serve both the public and Robert Smith’s reputation.

Major institutions show no sign of snubbing billionaire and admitted tax cheat Robert Smith—even following a recent report that he played a larger role in an alleged $2 billion fraud scheme than previously disclosed.

In the latest example of the philanthropist’s bounce-back from the scandal, Mount Sinai hospital in New York City has plastered his name on a just-launched mobile cancer-screening unit made possible by his largesse.

Smith gave the hospital $3.8 million in February 2021, four months after federal prosecutors announced a non-prosecution agreement that allowed the private-equity honcho to escape indictment with a $139 million settlement.

At the time of the gift, Mount Sinai said the initiative would specifically “promote prostate health in the Black community” by offering screening services in “highly concentrated Black neighborhoods.” Smith is the wealthiest Black businessperson in America.

Reached by The Daily Beast this week, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai stood by the gift and the decision to afford Smith naming rights, calling him an “incredible leader and philanthropist.”

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“Black men are dying needlessly from [prostate cancer], and early detection will make a big difference in saving lives. Mr. Smith’s investment and his leadership are helping us raise awareness to reduce the stigma of getting tested,” she said.

A spokesperson for Smith, meanwhile, called him a “role model” and said that “having his name prominently associated with the mobile screening unit—as well as having role models like Steve Harvey, Chris Tucker, Cedric the Entertainer, and Charlamagne Tha God involved with the launch—helps raise awareness of the disease, reduces the stigmas of getting tested, and ultimately saves Black lives." (Only Smith’s name appears on the vehicle.)

Mount Sinai estimates that 13 percent of “Black men between the ages 45 to 79” will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, while “more than 1 percent” will die from it.

The mission of the screening unit is undoubtedly worthwhile, but Smith’s track record isn’t quite as clean.

According to a 2020 press release announcing his settlement agreement, the billionaire admitted he had taken part in an “illegal scheme” to hide more than $200 million in income using an offshore trust and offshore bank accounts between 2000 and 2015. He allegedly used some of that untaxed money to buy a home in California, two “ski properties and a piece of commercial property in France.”

While prosecutors publicly have praised Smith’s cooperation, he remains a central figure in an ongoing related inquiry: the biggest tax evasion prosecution in American history. That case centers on his old partner Robert Brockman, who is facing a 39-count criminal indictment.

Smith has not been charged in the matter, though The Wall Street Journal reported last month that he “played a larger role than previously known in [Brockman’s] $2 billion alleged tax evasion.” (An attorney for Smith told the Journal her client didn’t know that Brockman may have structured a key transaction to dodge taxes.)

Smith has burnished his reputation in recent years through high-profile philanthropy. In 2019, well after federal authorities had begun investigating him for tax fraud, he famously promised to pay off all student loans for the Morehouse College class of 2019, whose commencement speech he delivered.

Even after his settlement, Smith has remained a fixture of high society. He chairs the Carnegie Hall board of trustees and is a member of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights board and the Cornell Tech Council.

Now, thanks to the rollout of the Mount Sinai screening unit, his reputation will be cleansed anew.

Samuel Brunson, a professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law who researches nonprofits, said that organizations are free to assign naming rights to donors as they see fit. Still, he noted, “a charity probably should be careful about being the source of reputation laundering.”

If they accepted money after wrongdoing came to light, he added—as was the case with Sinai—“that looks particularly not great for them.”

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Lachlan Cartwright

Noah KirschWealth and Power Reporter

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