A Williams Bay mansion along Geneva Lake that was
seized by the federal government in February has been sold to a private Illinois investor for about $6.5 million, according to state property records.
The property, a sprawling lakefront home on Cedar Point Drive, was taken by the federal government following a lengthy criminal tax fraud case against its former owner, one-time Chicago attorney Paul Daugerdas.
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
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 came less than a month after a federal court dismissed a 2021 appeal of the decision.
Daugerdas, who was 71 in February, is slated to be released from an Illinois federal prison in 2027.
State records list the buyer of his home as ProVest Properties, LLC, which lists its address as a high-end condo in Chicago.
