Over the years, I have reported on the travails of Gilbert Hyatt, inventor of the first single-chip microprocessor way back in 1990. The invention earned Hyatt a lot of money, so he decamped from California, which levies income tax, to Nevada, which does not. California’s pillage people, otherwise known as the Franchise Tax Board, claimed the inventor lied about his residency and socked him with a bill of $13.3 million in back taxes and penalties.
In Nevada, Hyatt sued the FTB for harassment, fraud, and invasion of privacy. Nevada wound up awarding Hyatt $490 million in damages, later reduced on
