Economics

Oil Investor Zukerman Dodged $45M in Taxes, U.S. Says

  • U.S. indicts onetime Morgan Stanley energy group chief
  • Used sham art sales and backdated documents, prosecutors say

People walk through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington, D.C.

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Morris Zukerman spent 16 years at Morgan Stanley, at various points overseeing its energy and merchant banking practices, before starting his own investment firm in the late 1980s. His firm’s partners have included ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Kinder Morgan. He endowed a Harvard sociology professorship. He collected dozens of expensive paintings, including works he loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Along the way, he evaded more than $45 million in taxes, the U.S. now alleges.