Billionaire GOP Donors Sam and Charles Wyly Hit With Fraud Charges by SEC

The Wylys, who have been generous contributors to the Republican Party and GOP candidates, have spent the past several years facing questions, including from a Senate investigative committee, about whether they hid millions of dollars in tax shelters abroad.

The Wylys have given to dozens of Republican candidates, none more so than the Bush family. The brothers were supporters of the campaigns of former President George H. W. Bush and his son, former President George W. Bush.

According to the SEC, the brothers, who live in Dallas, created an elaborate and clandestine network of accounts and companies on the Isle of Man and in the Cayman Islands. The brothers then used these accounts and companies to trade more than $750 million of stock in four public companies on whose boards they served, not filing the disclosures required for corporate insiders, the SEC said.

In one case, the SEC alleges that the Wylys traded based on insider information they learned as board members, netting a profit of $32 million.

Through their lawyer, the Wylys denied all charges.