Colorado dentist sentenced for tax evasion
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A Colorado dentist was sentenced Tuesday, June 17, to 41 months in prison for tax evasion related to his use of an illegal tax shelter.
According to the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), Ryan Ulibarri, owner of Ulibarria Family Dentistry in Fort Collins since 2014, purchased an abusive-trust tax shelter costing the United States a tax loss of $1.6 million.
USDOJ says Ulibarri purchased the shelter in 2016 for $50,000, which involved hiding money and creating false tax deductions through a fake business trust, family trust, charitable trust, and a private family foundation, all of which Ulibarri created and controlled.
According to the USDOJ, until 2023, Ulibarri used the tax shelter to conceal from the IRS over $5 million in income he earned from his dental practice and evaded more than $1.6 million in federal and state income taxes owed.
USDOJ confirms that the tax shelter was set up by signing trust instruments naming Ulibarri as trustee of each trust and foundation. According to officials, Ulibarri then opened bank accounts in each trust and foundation's name and transferred most ownership of his dental practice to the business trust.
Officials say he also recruited friends to falsely sign documents claiming they were the creators of the trusts to take the blame off of himself.
USDOJ says he then transferred over $5 million from his dental practice into the bank accounts of the trusts and foundations, creating the appearance that the funds belonged to those organizations, not him.
However, officials say he used this money for personal expenses, including his home mortgage, credit card bills, boats, luxury vacations, and professional baseball season tickets. Officials also say that Ulibarri filed false tax returns that included false deductions for himself, his dental practice, and the trusts and foundations.
U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang ordered Ulibarri to serve three years of supervised release, pay a $150,000 fine, and remit $1,449,121 to the IRS and $166,966 to the Colorado Department of Revenue.
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