THESE ARE SOME BIG ESTATE TAX NUMBERS, NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT

Following up on my post back in September about a frightening sequence of events involving the estate of the former owner of the Detroit Pistons, a recent item on the Law360 web site indicates, by my reading, that the lawsuit filed by that estate against its tax advisers is not likely to get resolved anytime soon.  
The Law360 item also indicates that I underestimated the amount the estate paid to the IRS in a settlement of the IRS’ claims against the estate.  It says the settlement amount was $457 million, and the estate ended up paying the IRS more than $708 million in estate and gift taxes, penalties and interest.  The IRS claimed that the estate owed $2.7 billion.
That’s $2,700,000,000 claimed, and $708,000,000 paid.  The estate is claiming damages of at least $500,000,000 against its tax advisers.