A Tucker's Town home owner accused of concocting a bizarre fake murder attempt on his own life has gone on trial in the US.

John Donovan Sr, an IT guru worth $100 million who owns Winsor House in the enclave dubbed "Billionaire's Row," told Police he was shot by two masked men as he got into his car in the parking lot of his business in Massachusetts on the night of December 16, 2005.

Donovan, who has been locked in a bitter legal fight with his children for years, claims the attempt on his life was orchestrated by his oldest son, James.

However, prosecutors claim Donovan, 65, staged his own shooting to gain an advantage in the battle with his children for control of trusts that he claims are worth at least $180 million. According to the Bermuda Online database, while Donovan lives overseas and rents out Winsor House, he has a number of trust fund interests based in Bermuda.

In the case that opened against him at Middlesex Superior Court in Massachusetts this week, he stands accused of filing a false police report, a misdemeanour carrying a maximum one-year sentence. Prosecutors claim in court documents: "John Donovan repeatedly provided false information to police about a crime that did not occur in order to 'frame' his son for a crime his son did not commit and had no part in."

Prosecutors say Donovan made up the story to exact revenge, and that their evidence includes a cryptic "to-do list" written by him on the menu of the Algonquin Club, an elite business club in Boston, in the pocket of a jacket he wore on the night of the shooting. The notations included words such as "gloves," "tool," "rifle," and "shells," according to court documents.

The case against Donovan also cites contradictions between his story to Police and the injuries he received. He told Police he had been shot twice in a large belt buckle he was wearing. However, the emergency room doctor who treated him said he did not see the type of injuries he would expect if the belt were on when the shots were fired. Donovan received a gunshot wound to his left abdomen. In hospital medical records, it was noted that Donovan "survived relatively unscathed," according to court documents filed by prosecutors.

Donovan denies any role in his shooting and insists he was attacked by two strangers who approached him as he got into his car at his business, Cambridge Executive Enterprises. During the 911 call he made from his cell phone after the shooting, he told a state police dispatcher that James, now 40, "laundered $180 million" and had threatened to kill him.

According to a report in the Boston Globe newspaper, defence lawyer Michael P. Doolin said in his opening statement on Monday: "There is no evidence that Mr. Donovan shot himself. There is no evidence that he procured someone to do it."

However, prosecutor Adrienne Lynch told Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman that Donovan staged the shooting to "get revenge" against James. She played an 11-minute cellphone call to State Police on December 16, 2005 in which, she said, Donovan repeatedly asked police to protect his wife Linda at their US home and accused James of laundering millions in family money, but could not tell dispatchers where he was located, even though he was sitting in the parking lot where he worked.

Donovan, a business professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1969 to 1997, made a name for himself as a technology guru. He commanded big fees as a sought-after speaker to Fortune 500 companies, started more than a dozen companies and published 11 books. However, according to an Associated Press (AP) report detailing the court proceedings against him, he made a lot of enemies during his long and multi-faceted career. In 2005, he was involved in more than a dozen lawsuits with former business associates and relatives, including the a bitter fight with his five children over trust assets. Donovan's children were beneficiaries of just one trust that is worth far less than the amount claimed by their father, AP said, quoting a spokeswoman for four of the five children.