Minnesota Man Made $68 Million Buying Shares of His Brother’s Company in His Retirement Accounts. He Will Never Pay a Penny of Tax on the Roth Money. The Same Rules Apply to You.
A Minnesota man with insider access to his brother's company turned a modest retirement account into a fortune that federal tax law may never touch, and the same legal framework sits open to every American with a Roth IRA.
A Wall Street Journal investigation into “mega IRAs” put a number on what insider access to pre-IPO shares can do inside a Roth. Gregory Baszucki, the younger brother of Roblox (NYSE:RBLX | RBLX Price Prediction) co-founder and CEO David Baszucki, holds a self-directed Roth IRA the paper estimates is worth at least $68 million. Because the money sits inside a Roth, qualified withdrawals will owe zero federal tax on every dollar of that growth.
How a Board Member’s Brother Ended Up With $68 Million in a Roth
Greg Baszucki grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, graduating from Eden Prairie High School in 1983, two years ahead of David. He now lives in Portola Valley, California, within easy reach of Roblox’s San Mateo headquarters. The two brothers co-founded Knowledge Revolution around 1989, an educational physics-simulation software company. Its flagship product, Interactive Physics, let students construct and run 2D physics models. MSC Software acquired the business in 1998 for $20 million.
Greg has served on Roblox’s board since February 2008, classified as a non-independent director because of the family relationship. Beyond Roblox, he co-founded FounderPartners, sits on the board of Mixbook, and chairs YourICP. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and is 61 years old.
Why This Is Legal: Cheap Shares, Not Big Contributions
The core mechanic comes down to what you buy, not how much you contribute. Annual IRA contribution limits apply to insiders the same as they apply to everyone else: a few thousand dollars per year. What separates a $68 million Roth from a $68,000 one is the asset sitting inside it.
Roblox’s 2021 S-1 disclosed 2,030,000 shares held by PENSCO Trust Company (now part of Pacific Premier Trust) as custodian for “the Greg Baszucki IRA,” pre-IPO shares acquired while the company was still private and priced accordingly. By Roblox’s 2026 proxy, the Roth IRA held roughly 1.32 million shares, a decline consistent with reporting that he sold about a third of his original stake after the 2021 public debut. Because those sales happened inside the Roth, no capital-gains tax applied, sparing him up to 20% in federal capital-gains tax on the proceeds. Roblox’s market cap now sits at approximately $31.5 billion, supported by $4.89 billion in 2025 revenue. As recently as September 1, 2026, Baszucki sold additional shares from the Roth IRA under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted in November 2025.
The Tax Outcome, Precisely
Qualified Roth withdrawals are distributions taken after age 59 1/2 with the account open at least five years. Both contributions and all growth come out 100% free of federal income and capital-gains tax. Baszucki is 61 and has held Roblox-linked IRA assets since at least 2008, so he already clears both bars. Zero federal tax on the Roth portion is literally accurate in his case.
The WSJ separately estimates about $158 million across his combined tax-advantaged retirement accounts, though it is not confirmed how much of that broader figure is Roth versus traditional tax-deferred money. Traditional balances would owe ordinary income tax on withdrawal, which is why the Roth distinction sits at the center of the real tax story here.
Mega-Roths Have Precedent: Thiel and Romney
ProPublica’s 2021 “Lord of the Roths” investigation showed PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel turned a $2,000 Roth IRA into $5 billion over roughly 22 years using the same basic recipe: cheap founder shares placed inside a self-directed Roth, then held through the company’s rise. Mitt Romney disclosed an IRA worth up to $101 million during his 2012 presidential campaign. Neither case generated the kind of legislative response that Baszucki’s story, combined with the WSJ’s broader mega-IRA reporting, appears to be producing now.
How Common Mega-IRAs Have Become
Joint Committee on Taxation data released alongside the Wyden-Neal bill in July 2026 illustrates how concentrated tax-sheltered retirement wealth has become. More than 32,000 Americans held IRAs worth more than $10 million, with an average balance among that group of $17 million. At the extreme end, 208 Americans collectively held $85.1 billion in tax-sheltered retirement accounts at the end of 2024, an average of about $409 million each. The JCT also found that more than 11,000 Americans held IRAs worth $10 million or more overall, up from about 3,600 in 2019, and that more than 1,000 people held IRA balances above $25 million, more than double the 2019 count.
For context, the average American family’s IRA balance is roughly $268,300. The JCT estimates that IRA and 401(k)-style tax breaks cost the federal government about $249.6 billion in forgone revenue in 2025. Tax policy analyst Steven Rosenthal, formerly of the Tax Policy Center, told the WSJ: “We aren’t talking about saving enough for your needs in retirement. This isn’t keeping you off the dole in old age. This is yacht financing or dynasty building.”
The Proposed Crackdown, and What “Same Rules” Actually Means
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), the top Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees respectively, introduced the Retirement Fairness for Working Americans Act (S.5040 and H.R.9813) on July 22, 2026. The bill would require annual withdrawals from retirement accounts worth more than $10 million and bar further contributions once an individual’s combined retirement balance crosses that threshold. Any contributions made above the limit would trigger a 6% excise tax. The legislation targets only high earners: it applies to individuals with modified adjusted gross income above $400,000 and married couples above $450,000 who also hold more than $10 million in retirement assets. Accounts worth $20 million or more would face an additional requirement to transfer excess Roth funds into taxable accounts.
The bill revives language that appeared in Biden administration budget proposals and a 2021 House-passed budget measure, neither of which became law. Wyden framed the goal plainly: “This is an egregious loophole we’ve got to close.” The legislation carries no Republican co-sponsors and faces a steep climb in a Republican-controlled Congress, though both sponsors would chair the relevant committees if Democrats regain the majority after the 2026 midterms.
The tax rules Greg Baszucki used are the same rules available to any American with a Roth IRA: identical contribution limits, identical withdrawal treatment, identical five-year clock. The gap is the underlying asset. The average investor cannot acquire 2 million pre-IPO shares in a startup that later lists at a multibillion-dollar valuation. Open a Roth today at any major brokerage, fund it up to the annual limit, and the tax treatment on qualified withdrawals will be exactly as favorable. The multiplier, now and always, comes from what you own inside the account.
Editor’s note: This pass updated Roblox’s market capitalization to approximately $31.5 billion (from the previously cited $29.4 billion) based on market data as of early October 2026, added the formal name of the Wyden-Neal legislation (Retirement Fairness for Working Americans Act, S.5040 and H.R.9813), and noted that the bill revives language from Biden-era budget proposals and a 2021 House-passed measure.
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
