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Bankrupt Billionaire Lists $12.5 Million Dallas Mansion

Embattled investor Sam Wyly is selling his five-bedroom, Tudor-style home in the posh suburb of Highland Park

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Compsite: Riccardo S. Savi / Getty Images; Google Maps
Compsite: Riccardo S. Savi / Getty Images; Google Maps

Embattled former billionaire Sam Wyly is looking to unload his ivy-covered mansion outside of Dallas for $12.5 million.

The 82-year-old businessman, investor and philanthropist, who is wrapped up in a years-long battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over a fraud suit and was billed for billions in back taxes from the Internal Revenue Service, put the pale brick home on the market late last week.

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Mr. Wyly’s home is in the posh suburb of Highland Park, just north of Dallas. He has owned the house since at least 1983, according to property records. It’s unclear how much he paid for the mansion, though it is assessed for tax purposes at around $9 million, property records show.

In the fall, Mr. Wyly agreed to pay almost $200 million to the SEC to resolve a fraud suit in which he and his late brother, Charles Wyly, were accused of hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in offshore accounts while getting rich off investments in the arts and crafts store Michaels and others. The corruption charges have led the octogenarian worth an estimated $1.1 billion a decade ago to declare bankruptcy.

Earlier this year, he reportedly won court permission to spend some $1.4 million in previously frozen assets to move from the Highland Park mansion and into a posh retirement community nearby.

A lawyer for Mr. Wyly did not immediately return a request for comment.

The one-acre property consists of a Tudor mansion built in 1924 and manicured grounds that include a backyard pool, porch and patio. Noted architect Charles D. Hill, who also created the old City Hall and a number of other stately residences in Dallas, designed the house, according to the listing with agent Susan Shannon of Allie Beth Allman & Associates, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate.

The home spans more than 7,500 square feet with five bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms and hasn’t been on the market for 50 years, according to the listing.

Photos of the house show a mansion set back from the main road by a generous front lawn bisected by a flagstone pathway to the front door. The entryway opens into a foyer with ornate dark wood moulding and a sweeping staircase up the second floor. The deeply stained wood moulding continues into a bookcase-lined study with a fireplace and into the kitchen.

The second floor master suite includes a dramatic, Gothic revival bathroom with a tub surrounded by intricate wood moulding. A bather can stare up at the steep vaulted ceiling with wood beams, chandeliers and a cathedral-like skylight.

The home also has a vast game room on the third floor, a three-car garage and views over Highland Park’s golf course.

Images of the interior show that much of the furnishings have been cleared out of the home, likely as part of Mr. Wyly’s move to a retirement facility. Some relics of his tenure there include a number of near-life-sized tiger sculptures and bronze carousel ponies.

His new digs at the Edgemere retirement community in Dallas offer its residents a spa, gold course, "European-style" gardens and courtyards and performing arts facilities, according to its website.

Realtor.com contributed reporting to this article