A Williams Bay mansion along Geneva Lake will be sold at auction by the federal government, following a lengthy criminal tax fraud case against its former owner, one-time Chicago attorney Paul Daugerdas.
The property, a sprawling lakefront mansion at 619 Cedar Point Drive in Williams Bay, was officially seized by the U.S. government, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue records.
The property was assessed at just over $4.8 million in 2021, according to online property assessment records maintained by Walworth County. Those records put the fair market value of the six-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom home at just over $6 million. Built in 1929, the home last sold in 2000 for $3.5 million
An agent with the company auctioning the home off for the government, CWS Marketing Group (CWSAMS), did not know when the property might go up for auction, stating that there is a process that still needs to be completed before that can happen.
Daugerdas was found guilty on charges including conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud by a New York federal jury in 2013, according to reporting by Reuters. He was convicted of overseeing fraudulent tax shelters for about two decades, mostly at now-defunct law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist, costing the U.S. government more than $1.63 billion in tax revenue.
In addition to being sentenced to 15 years in prison, he was ordered to forfeit $164.7 million and make restitution payments of $371 million.
The government’s seizure of the Williams Bay mansion comes less than a month after a federal court dismissed a 2021 appeal of the decision.
Daugerdas, 71, is slated to be released from Illinois federal prison in 2027.