Last year, a researcher poring over Treasury Department stats did a double-take on one particular sum: A $7 billion estate and gift tax payment. Which apparently means, as Tim Fernholz reports at Sherwood, that somebody very, very rich died and left the government the huge payment. It's unusual in part because the richest among us typically find a way to avoid or at least defray the estate tax, through trusts or philanthropy. But it's unusual in a bigger way as well: "The degree by which this payment exceeds others in modern history—it's not just, 'Oh, this was the biggest one by 20%,'" says John Ricco, the researcher who spotted it. As it turns out, "this was the biggest one by a factor of seven," writes Fernholz, who puts the second-largest such tax paid at just over $1 billion in 2017.
So who died? Because the Treasury doesn't divulge names, Fernholz embarked on an economic whodunnit. He tried to match up obituaries with the Forbes billionaires list but struck out. However, an anonymous tipster got wind of his hunt and gave him the name of Fayez Sarofim, an Egyptian-born investment manager who lived in Texas until his death in May 2022. The tipster put Sarofim's net worth around $20 billion, which should have landed him on the Forbes list, though it's quite possible he flew under the radar. As for motive, the tipster says Sarofim was happy to repay the country where he made his fortune. Case closed? Maybe. Sarofim's family will not confirm, and another theory is that the payment was made as part of an estate-planning strategy. "In other words, if the source isn't the possibly patriotic Fayez, it means our secret billionaire is alive—and trying to minimize their taxes," writes Fernholz. (Read his full story.)
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