Speaking of Robert Mercer

This from May 1 of this year:

The Internal Revenue Service is demanding a whopping $7 billion or more in back taxes from the world’s most profitable hedge fund, whose boss’s wealth and cyber savvy helped Donald Trump pole-vault into the White House.

Suddenly, the government’s seven-year pursuit of Renaissance Technologies LLC is blanketed in political intrigue, now that the hedge fund’s reclusive, anti-establishment co-chief executive, Robert Mercer, has morphed into a political force who might be owed a big presidential favor.

[...]

Since the IRS found in 2010 that a complicated banking method used by Renaissance and about 10 other hedge funds was a tax-avoidance scheme, Mercer has gotten increasingly active in politics. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, he doled out more than $22 million to outside conservative groups seeking to influence last year’s elections, while advocating the abolition of the IRS and much of the federal government.

  McClatchy

This from a few days ago:

Members of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Appeals are scheduled to meet with lawyers for Renaissance in New York on Nov. 7.

[...]

Although the dollar amount at issue has never been made public, Senate investigators estimated that Renaissance employees may have pocketed about $6.8 billion through what a bipartisan panel in 2014 called an “abusive” tax shelter.

  Bloomberg

So, by stepping down, does Mercer rid himself of liability for the back taxes and other tax schemes the company engaged in? Surely not, if he was in charge when it was happening. Or did something else, connected to Trump's Russia exposure, suddenly pop up? You know Mueller is looking into Trump's own tax affairs. Is there a connection to Renaissance Tech? Perhaps it's something personal regarding Mercer, and stepping down spares the rest of the company's execs and the company reputation?

Questions, questions.

And more intrigue:

Trump named David Kautter to become acting IRS commissioner after the term of John Koskinen, an appointee of Barack Obama, expires Nov. 12. Kautter doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Rootstrikers, a group critical of the Trump administration, began a petition drive Friday opposing the Kautter appointment, calling it an “end run around the Senate” that “could lead to a massive payback for billionaire Trump donor Robert Mercer.”

Remember Kautter?

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.