First Federal Indictment in Cases Involving Syndicated Conservation Easements - $900,000,000.00 in fraudulent Tax Deductions

I wonder if Donald Trump is worried - he should be. His insane tax deductions for his three conservation easements are going to come back and haunt him and that delights me.

Should you be inclined - because I’m growing sick of the Trump is going down for “money laundering, his mob ties…his human trafficking” blah blah blah. I get it that Conservation Easements isn’t nearly as sexy as “drug, boobs, babes and money laundering” but my position has remained the same since circa 2017 - Trump and Conservation Easements will undoubtedly be his undoing. Why? Because his gross multi-million dollar tax credits - means the train will make stops at; tax evasion, fraudulent/wire fraud, fraudulent loans and possibly insurance fraud.

Also if you had read the May 27, 2021 article you would have known that I took the time to reread the New York Attorney General Office excepts of various Depositions.

And I straight up said everyone is looking at Allen Weisselberg but most overlooked the various names and roles these individuals have within the Trump Organization - so on June 4, 2021 when the “news broke” that Jeff McConney was called into the Special Grand Jury

And of course you can disagree with my assertion that Jeffrey S McConney is a likely valuable witness, but before you do I’d like to draw your attention to this relevant (overlooked) section of his 2018 Deposition

…my readers weren’t exactly surprised because I think I did a semi-decent job of walking you through the relevant parts of the deposition excerpt -transcript. That wasn’t me making a random guess no that was just good old fashioned research and then giving my readers the actual documents to support my assertions.

Because the dots actually connect and if I were a reporter I’d keep an eye out for the various individuals proffered by both Weisselberg and McConney… the facts are out there - it just depends if you want to find them or listen to individuals who have been trafficking in disinformation and misinformation for years. Personally I’d rather focus on the facts that are supported by various court filings…

• Next person who says Trump is going down for Money Laundering, Sex Trafficking, & Drug Distro ‘cause mobs gotta mob. Cool show us the evidence to support your assertion. - If you followed me on Twitter, as far back as Q3 2017 I repeatedly stated Trump won’t go down for his “mob” ties. He will go down for tax evasion by way of Conservation Easements & Insurance Fraud

• A quick factual lesson on New York Constitution, Laws and Rules governing Grand Juries and Special Grand Juries. - At all relevant times I will endeavor to provide you with original source documents. If I’m making an “opinion” I will make that obvious but I think it’s time to help you understand the process
  

As previously explained both the Justice Department and IRS are cracking down on the “abuse” of Conservation Easements - I previously walked you through past enforcement actions - back in December 2020 the Agee’s have been cooperating with both the IRS and DOJ -

• Atlanta tax professionals plead guilty to promoting syndicated conservation easement tax scheme involving more than $1.2 billion in fraudulent charitable deductions

Shut Down Promoters of Conservation Easement Tax Scheme Operating out of Georgia - “defendants’ scheme revolves around donations of conservation easements and corresponding tax benefits from those donations. Defendants also allegedly rely on grossly overvalued appraisals as part of their scheme” Dec 2018 DOJ-OPA  - Stein and Corey Agee pleaded guilty in December 2020 and yes we’ve previously discussed that they were cooperating but the plea agreement is still sealed.”

Because had you read the Criminal Information filed in December 2020 then you would have known more shoes would drop - because the largesse these CPAs made is the kind of greed that only the fictional character Gordon Gekko would be proud of…as you’ll note on page 2 of the Agee Criminal Information more shoes are expected to drop ergo the recent indictment of Herbert E Lewis.

Moreover if you read the Factual Basis as to Stein Agee you can see how they built this scheme and when I say it largely mirrors that of what the Trump Organization did - that’s because I’ve spent hours reading and researching the Trump Org’s paperwork and tracking down the numerous special exemption land use application(s) in Florida, New York, Virginia and California.

Of the aforementioned states Trump has conservation easements in 3 of the 4 - he abandoned those efforts in Virginia because Trump messed up the Potomac River embankments and the County fined the ___ out of him. And it resulted in him pulling the “special exemption” land use application for his shitty “conservation easements” - again if you read the Court filings in the Agee and Zak cases you’ll note that the shell & shelf companies and land use applications seem incredibly famous. Provided you’ve read the panoply of documents I’ve previously provided you.

So it goes without saying - Trump and his Conservation Easements will ultimately be his undoing —until then I’d keep an eye on the enforcement actions from the DOJ and IRS. So for the last time - repeat after me:

CONSERVATION EASEMENTS…

…will be Trump’s undoing… because that’s derived from following the facts and money. And supported by hours, too many to accurately enumerate that I’ve spent researching and reading his land use applications. Not to belabor my point it’s not going to be Trump’s supposed ties to the mob or his supposed ties to drugs or his money laundering that will take him down. No it’s going to be the tried and tested tax evasion because in the end that’s always what takes down a mob boss.

To be clear I’m not saying Trump is a mob boss because there’s nothing in the public domain or respective court documents that substantiate that assertion. Conversely there’s plenty of factual evidence that Trump has likely engaged in tax evasion, wire/bank/loan fraud, insurance fraud…and as previously explained (see the last 2/3 of this article) the Manhattan District Attorney working in concert with the New York Attorney General’s office - remember that Trump’s Seven Springs property sprawls three different towns/villages as previously explained here and it’s not like I didn’t give you the documents to prove my assertion…

Now back to the DOJ’s recent announcement about Promoting Syndicated Conservation Easement Tax Scheme… the DOJ and IRS have been telegraphing their intent to crack down on the abuse of conservation easements for almost a year…

Georgia CPA Indicted for Promoting Syndicated Conservation Easement Tax Scheme Involving Fraudulent Charitable Deductions

Justice Department @TheJusticeDept

Georgia CPA Indicted for Promoting Syndicated Conservation Easement Tax Scheme Involving Fraudulent Charitable Deductions

justice.govGeorgia CPA Indicted for Promoting Syndicated Conservation Easement Tax Scheme Involving Fraudulent Charitable DeductionsA federal grand jury sitting in Atlanta, Georgia, returned an indictment today charging an Atlanta certified public accountant with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States; 24 counts of wire fraud; 32 counts of aiding or assisting in the preparation of false federal tax returns; and fiv…

First Federal Indictment in Cases Involving Syndicated Conservation Easements

Per the recent DOJ-OPA - which reads in part:

..between 2014 and 2019, Herbert E. Lewis¹ ²conspired with others to market, promote, and sell fraudulent tax shelter transactions in the form of syndicated conservation easement (SCE) donations. The SCE tax shelters allegedly enabled high-income taxpayers to purchase membership interests in purported real estate investment funds.

According to the indictment, the funds served no legitimate business purpose, but instead were used to generate large fraudulent tax deductions for its participants based on the donated value of the conservation easements.  

Lewis allegedly received more than $1 million in commissions for selling the SCE shelters. The indictment also alleges that Lewis filed false individual income tax returns that failed to report a substantial portion of his commission income on his individual tax returns.

Herbert E Lewis was indicted on the following charges (see NDGA-ECF link to indictment https://ecf.gand.uscourts.gov/doc1/055113739895

• 24 counts of wire fraud;

• 32 counts of aiding or assisting in the preparation of false federal tax returns; and

• five counts of filing false federal tax returns relating to a wide-ranging, abusive tax shelter scheme. 

Defendant and Associated Individuals and Entities

So off the bat we know that the “accounting firm” is https://victorsmithcpa.com

• Acountant A/ a co-conspirator known to the grand jury/ was a CPA and founding partner of Accounting Firm - is likely Victor Smith since he’s the “founding partner” of VictorSmithCPA

• Promoter A/ a co-conspirator known to the grand jury/ ~was a CPA and partner at Accounting Firm - my guess is it’s Timothy F Kercheval, CPA. CGMA (who’s also tango down on the CPA firm’s website but it is possible I am wrong and it might not be him)

Promoter A/ through Company I/ organized, promoted/ and sold at least 23 SCE Shelters…

Now in order to pull off the syndicate conservation easement scheme - the network employed; numerous (land use) attorneys, CPAs, Accounting Firms, Land Use Appraisers, Tax-Exempt Conservation Organizations, and various promoters who enticed wealthy Real Estate Clients (or land developers) to fraudulently use the IRS Conservation Easement Tax Dedications - thereby cheating the IRS out of nearly $1.8 B as in BILLION… in taxable real estate values.

Stein and Corey Agree Criminal Information December 2020

In short this tax evading infrastructure would typically over inflate the value of the “conservation easement” and allowed the client to take tens of millions in fraudulent tax credits. But this particular scheme was pernicious because the 1:4 ratio of land value, (over inflated) value of “conservation easements” created a scenario where wealthy clients ended up making money because of the artificially inflated value of the easements. Moreover CPAs like Herbert Lewis saw this white collar crime as a money making bonanza. Thus he and others often unjustly enriched themselves and their clients.

Paragraph 30 of the indictment, does a decent job explaining how Defendant Lewis’ SCE scheme worked - notice the following facts:

At the time they were donated/ the conservation easements were appraised at values significantly higher than what the Shelter had paid to purchase its interest in the Property Company that owned real property over which the easement had been donated

Look it’s a LOT of information in the Herbert Lewis Indictment - although I find the perfect Music accompaniment -Music by MYSM - Fucked Up Today - https://thmatc.co/?l=D70D050E (don’t even try to DCMA me because I bought the damn license to use that song)

This indictment illustrates how damning the Government’s case really is. This is one of those “mainly on paper” cases. Which means the subjectivity isn’t exactly a factor. In my industry we say “paper doesn’t have emotion” and I’d argue the Government’s case is largely on paper. What’s also clear, there had to be numerous forensic accountants helping investigators track down the “donations” the appraisals and the various letter(s) of engagement. Because this kind of paperwork chasing can be really daunting. I know because this is kind of my sweet spot. That is tracking down the easements, the appraisals, the tax exempt organization that “accepts” the “donated easements” - it a lot of hard and tedious research. So I actually have a ton of respect for the DOJ and FBI - this investigation wasn’t simple or easy - even with numerous cooperating witnesses.

Yes you read this correctly $900,000,000.00 in fraudulent Tax Deductions

That is a significant amount and keep in mind this is only one of (arguably there are dozens if not hundreds of nearly identical “schemes” throughout the United States) this is kind of like - you pull on one thread and a whole bunch of other threads drop. In all seriousness think about this; between the Agees, Zaks (and their company) ECOVEST CAPITAL, INC and now Herbert Lewis - resulting in almost a billion in fraudulent tax deductions… that should make a few wealthy property owners and unscrupulous CPAs and Law Firms kind of worried.

Because when I said this is the “first indictment of a syndicated conservation easement” it is. The Agees & Zaks all decided to cooperate with the Government and that’s why Herbert E Lewis’ indictment should be viewed as a watershed moment for those who are fraudulently using conservation easement for unreasonable tax deductions.

So yes looking at you Donald and Trump Organization - you’ve engaged in this fraudulent activity since at least 1993…

And because I genuinely care about my readers having unfettered access to public court documents - I saved you $3.00 and uploaded his indictment to my public drive - so I’ll say it again

CONSERVATION EASEMENTS…

…you can take that to the bank (see what I did there) will be what takes Donald Trump and the Trump Organization down… so to the QANON-for-the-Left show me your receipts that it’s mob, drugs, sex trafficking that will take Trump down…oh wait you can’t because there are no receipts to your QANON-For-The-Left uninformed conspiracies that you keep trafficking in and misleading your followers.

-Filey OUT

1. Herbert E Lewis - Tax Pro Bio - https://taxrpo.com/preparer/herbert-lewis-roswell-ga/ also archived

2. Herbert E Lewis - of Victor Smith CPA https://victorsmithcpa.com/page_category/personnel/page/2/ - also archived in case the firm decides to 404 or 410 him - because his firm (within minutes of the indictment) scrubbed his profile from their website https://victorsmithcpa.com/herbert-e-lewis-cpa/