Arts 9 Ferrell on slow track
in 'Talladega Nights'
Sports 13 Bass knee injury
potentially
career ending
Monday, August 7, 2006
Summer Weekly
One-hundred-sixteen years ofeditonlfreedom
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www.michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 129
©2006 The Michigan Daily
'U' donor investigated
in tax-evasion report
Congressional report focuses on alum
Sam Wyly, spurs questions about naming
University buildings after donors
By Kelly Fraser and
Leah Graboski
Daily News Editors
University donor and Texas entrepreneur Sam Wyly is attract-
ing national attention this week after Congress released a report
questioning his interpretation of United States tax laws by send-
ing millions of stock options overseas.
Subcommittee Chairman Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). and
ranking minority member Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) released
the report at a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investiga-
tions hearing Tuesday.
The report uses six case studies to illustrate the abuse of
tax laws in the offshore tax industry. The 13-year investiga-
tion of Sam Wyly and his brother, Charles, is one of the most
elaborate cases.
Another of the six cases under investigation involves Kurt
Greaves, who owns Greaves Inc., which is located a few miles
southeast of campus on East Ellsworth Road.Greaves is believed
to have moved more than $400,000 overseas untaxed.
The Wyly brothers have transferred $190 million in stock
options to a number of trusts on the Isle of Man, an island that
lies in the Irish Seaoff the coast of Great Britain.
The stock options came from corporations the Wylys were
associated with, including Michaels Stores Inc., Sterling Soft-
ware Inc. and Sterling Commerce Inc.
The offshore trusts used $600 million in untaxed dollars and
other gains from investment to obtain real estate, art, furnish-
ings and jewelry for the Wyly family.
The Wyly brothers maintain they have acted within the law.
The report reads: "Among those impacted by the Wyly off-
shore activities are the U.S. Treasury, United States taxpayers
who have to make up the lost revenue, and the investing public
who were kept in the dark about the offshore stock holdings and
trading activity of entities controlled by the directors of three
publicly traded corporations."
In 1996, Sam Wyly donated $10 million to the University's
business school. At the time, Wyly's donation was the largest
gift the school had ever received for facilities.
Wyly earned an MBA from the University in 1957 and has
credited accounting Prof. William Paton for bringing him to
the University by personally recruiting him and offering him
a scholarship.
Sam Wyly Hall - on the corner of Hill Street and East
University Avenue - now houses the school's Executive
Education Center and the William Davidson Institute.
Jerry May, vice president for development, who manages
See WYLY, Page 2
In 1996, Sam Wyly gave the University $10 million to build Sam Wyly Hall,
which is located on the corner of Hill Street and East University Avenue.
Wyly is under investigation for his family's trusts on the Isle of Man stem-
ming from a congressional report on offshore tax trusts released Tuesday.
Greeks support injured student |
Business senior Blake
I leidenreich fractured his neck
in a diving' accident
By Carissa Miller
Managing News Editor
The walls of Blake Heidenreich's hos-
pital room are covered with personal
snapshots, get-well cards and travel pho-
tos - mementos left by friends, family
and classmates who make frequent visits
to the tiny space.
While visiting a friend at Michigan's
Sylvan Lake on July 3, the Business senior
unknowingly dove into 29 inches of water,
fracturing the C3 and C4 vertebrae in his
neck. After two weeks in the intensive care
unit at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak,
Heidenreich transferred to the University
Hospital for rehabilitation.
Within a week of the accident, members of
letdmnreich's fraternity - Sigma Phi Epsi-
Ion - created a website to post updates on
tseit friend's condition and to enable people
to make donations to help the family cope
with medical expenses. The site, www.xanga.
cot/blrlakeheidenrreich, also features messag-
es and stories posted by visitors.
LSA junior Art Urban, who manages the
website. said nearly $600 has been donated
in Heidenreich's name through the site's
Paypal account.
As an additional fundraising campaign,
members of Sig Ep recently ordered maize-
and-blue-colored wristbands, imprinted with
"Blakestrong," to sell at a $5 minimum. The
funds will go to the family.
Once fall semester is underway, Urban said
Sig Ep plans to hold a benefit involving the
campus community in Heidenreich's honor.
Other houses within the University's Greek
community - such as Delta Gamma and
Alpha Chi Omega sororities - have shown
their support for the campaign, despite being
away from campus.
In addition to regular hospital visits,
Business junior and DG president Sarah
Herrmann said she regularly e-mails
members of her sorority with updates on
Heidenreich's condition.
"The main goal right now is to be a sup-
port for Blake and to keep his spirits up,"
Herrmann said.
Heidenreich and his family are currently
engaged in a battle with their insurance
provider over the terms of his rehabilita-
tion. Because the insurance company does
not consider the University Hospital a
"preferred provider," the family is not sure
whether Heidenreich will be able to remain
in Ann Arbor.
"I definitely want to stay here," Heiden-
reich said. "I told them if they tried to send
me, I'd more or less try to make them send me
back. I'd make it so they don't want me."
The National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research named the Univer-
sity Health System's Model Spinal Cord Inju-
ry Care System a Model Spinal Cord Injury
Center, an honor awarded to only 16 institu-
tions in the United States.
At the time of his injury, Heidenreich was
considered a tetraplegic - experiencing
paralysis from the neck down - but did not
suffer damage to his brain function or mem-
ory. Initial evaluations indicated Heidenreich
could permanently require a ventilator in
order to breathe.
For spinal cord injuries such as Heiden-
reich's, the majority of recovery occurs
within two years. The most intense
improvements typically appear during the
first six months, however, as swelling of the
body's nerves decreases.
Although he remains partially paralyzed,
Heidenreich has regained sensation and mini-
mal function in various muscles throughout
his body in she weeks since the accident,
including those in his left thumb.
But because it is nearly impossible to
determine how Heidenreich's recovery will
progress, Heidenreich and his family do not
know if he will be able to walk again.
At the University Hospital, Heidenreich
undergoes physical and occupational
See HEIDENREICH, Page 8
Business senior Blake Heidenreich in his room at the Uni-
versity of Michigan Hospital on Saturday afternoon. Heiden-
reich is visited daily by friends, family and fraternity brothers
who decorate his room with photos and gifts.