A Georgia CPA has pleaded guilty to charges involving a wide-ranging conspiracy to promote of abusive syndicated conservation easement tax shelters. Herbert Lewis, an Atlanta-based CPA, made the plea in a case in which two men have received length prison sentences.
Lewis pleaded guilty to conspiracy and filing a false return, earning more $1 million in commissions while promoting and selling the illegal tax shelters from about 2014 through at least 2019. CPAs Jack Fisher and James Sinnott has received sentences of 25 and 23 years respectively in prison.
The IRS said in 2019 alone, Lewis helped 15 clients preparer 2018 returns that claimed nearly $14 million in bogus deductions based on backdate documents, causing a tax los of nearly $5 million.
Lewis failed to fully report commissions by reporting them on tax returns in his children’s names.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
