Inside the Turducken Investigation — Author Jens Heycke & DOJ Prosecutor Corey Smith

In our last episode, we peeled back the layers of the “Turducken”—the offshore nesting-doll structure allegedly used to hide billions. Today, we go inside the investigation with the people who lived it: Jens Heycke, author of Death, Taxes, and Turduckens, and Corey Smith, the longtime DOJ prosecutor who helped build the case.

This conversation is part true-crime thriller, part investigative masterclass: encrypted messages hidden inside photos, false-bottom briefcases, a psychiatrist taking the Fifth in court, and an offshore infrastructure so layered that even the IRS nearly walked away from chasing the assets.

If you liked The Big Short or Catch Me If You Can, this is that… but in the tax world.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• How Jens first got pulled into the Brockman story—and why it had “bad blood” energy from the beginning

• What the “Turducken” actually is (and why it’s the perfect metaphor for offshore schemes)

• A simple explanation of the layered structure: trust → offshore company → offshore company → foreign bank account

• How prosecutors actually start tracing cases like this (domestic accounts outward + foreign ownership back inward)

• What made the Brockman structure different: the income allegedly never touched U.S. hands to begin with

• Why nominee controllers are both the “solution” and the Achilles’ heel of offshore concealment

• The critical Bermuda raid that seized a key computer—and why it triggered Brockman’s downfall

• Why Jens says it’s “horrifying” the IRS nearly gave up chasing the assets after Brockman died

• The “Tweel ruling” separation between civil and criminal IRS enforcement—and how it can leave money unrecovered

• What this case cost to prosecute (Corey’s estimate) and why the return on investment still makes it worth it

• The bombshell meeting where the Attorney General made the call not to indict Robert Smith—and how Corey handled it

• The “wish list” of 14 demands Robert Smith agreed to in exchange for the non-prosecution agreement

• Corey’s candid take on the psychology of white-collar criminals: insecurity + arrogance wrapped together

• Why billionaires can “buy time” with endless litigation, and how that intimidates agencies into backing down

• Jens’s take on enforcement “economies of scale”—and why tax defense is easier the richer you are

• A teaser for the next episode: reform ideas to fix the system that makes Turduckens possible

Guests

Jens Heycke — Author of Death, Taxes, and Turduckens, investigative writer tracing offshore secrecy from the Caribbean to the courtroom. get your copy here

Corey Smith — Former DOJ prosecutor with 33+ years experience leading major tax fraud prosecutions, including the Brockman case.