A Colorado dentist who was indicted for allegedly using an illegal tax shelter to conceal more than $3.5 million from the IRS pleaded guilty on February 28 to six counts of tax evasion, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Dr. Ryan Ulibarri, who owned and operated Ulibarri Family Dentistry in Fort Collins, CO, since 2014, is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties, according to a press release dated February 24 from the DOJ Office of Public Affairs.
In August 2024, a U.S. grand jury in Denver indicted Ulibarri on six counts of tax evasion for his use of an illegal tax shelter.
In 2016, Ulibarri allegedly purchased a tax shelter for $50,000. From 2017 to 2022, the dentist reportedly used the tax shelter to hide more than $3.5 million of his income from the IRS, according to the release.
To carry out the tax shelter, Ulibarri allegedly signed trust instruments purporting to create three trusts and a private foundation and opened bank accounts in the name of each entity. Furthermore, Ulibarri allegedly recruited friends to falsely sign his trust instruments as the purported creators of the trusts, according to the release.
Also, he purportedly restructured his dental practice so that most of it was reportedly owned by one of the trusts. The dentist reportedly did this despite attorneys and certified public accountants cautioning him that a trust could not own a dental practice. Nearly all of Ulibarri's earnings from his dental practice were allegedly transferred to the bank accounts he created for the trusts and private foundations, according to the release.
The concealed income was reportedly used to pay Ulibarri's personal expenses, including his home mortgage and credit card bills, as well as to buy boats and professional baseball season tickets.
Lastly, the dentist allegedly filed false tax returns for himself and the trusts. Ulibarri also claimed fraudulent deductions for his personal living expenses that he disguised as trust expenses and charitable donations. Overall, Ulibarri is alleged to have caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $1 million, according to the release.
