A New Jersey accountant, Ralph Anderson, has been sentenced to 24 months in prison for his involvement in promoting and selling illegal syndicated conservation easement tax shelters. These actions took place between 2013 and 2019 while Anderson was working as a CPA and return preparer for accounting firms in New Jersey and New York.
Court documents reveal that Anderson collaborated with convicted co-conspirators Jack Fisher and James Sinnott to sell fraudulent tax deductions to high-income clients. The scheme involved the sale of units in tax shelters based on inflated appraisals of donated land or conservation easements. Clients were promised a charitable deduction ratio of "4.5 to 1" for every dollar invested.
To facilitate these transactions, Anderson and his associates instructed clients to backdate documents, making it appear they had joined partnerships before the donation dates required for claiming tax benefits. This led to over $9.3 million in false charitable deductions being claimed on client tax returns, resulting in nearly $3 million in lost taxes for the United States.
From 2016 to 2019, Anderson earned more than $300,000 in commissions from promoting these illegal shelters. He also reduced his own taxes by claiming false deductions from free units he received through the scheme.
In addition to his prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Shipp ordered Anderson to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution totaling $3,543,005.53 to the IRS and Small Business Administration.
Co-conspirators Fisher and Sinnott received sentences of 25 and 23 years respectively after being convicted on all counts by a U.S. District Court jury in Georgia. Nine other defendants pleaded guilty, including appraiser Walter Douglas “Terry” Roberts; CPAs Stein Agee, Corey Agee, James Benkoil, Victor Smith, Herbert Lewis, William Tomasello; attorneys Randall Lenz; and Vi Bui.
The Justice Department’s Tax Division Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly announced the sentencing alongside Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). The case was investigated by IRS-CI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with prosecution led by Senior Litigation Counsel Richard M. Rolwing along with Trial Attorneys Parker Tobin and Jessica Kraft.