Word: hmc
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...further point of contention was HMC’s use of complex “structured finance agreements,” which created and linked so many investment entities that tax reporting became nearly impossible to conduct without attending planning discussions among the managers and HMC lawyers, Rose said...
While Rose only served as a tax director for a year at HMC before resigning, he previously helped prepare the company’s taxes for ten years as an independent contractor. Although he had never noticed any suspect activity at HMC before—he said he was simply given data from which to produce returns—his new position’s oversight and personnel access provided him with information that gradually coalesced into broader—and more disturbing—insights into the company’s complex network of operations...
According to Rose, HMC frequently under-reported its income from outside money management firms by “netting” it, or cancelling it out, with management fees paid out by the University. This practice, which reduces HMC tax obligations, is questionable because much of the income that Harvard receives from the firms actually derives from management fees that the firms collect from other investors—activities unrelated to the University’s tax-exempt purpose...
Rose said that when he raised concerns to HMC lawyers about netting, they said they had “no tax authority,” or legal precedent, to be engaging in the practice—but continued nonetheless...
...Times article, former HMC CEO Meyer—who later left the company with 30 employees and a $500 million initial investment from the University to start his own hedge fund—said none of the relationships were deceptive and that he had an “outside legal opinion [on netting], which he declined to share.” But the story cited two former high-ranking IRS officials who disputed Meyer’s interpretation of netting, as well as concerns from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers that caused one firm to report their fees in full instead...