Colorado Dentist Charged with Tax Evasion

A federal grand jury in Denver returned an indictment unsealed on Friday charging a Colorado dentist with six counts of tax evasion for his use of an illegal tax shelter.

According to the indictment, since 2014, Ryan Ulibarri owned and operated Ulibarri Family Dentistry in Fort Collins. In 2016, Ulibarri allegedly purchased a tax shelter for $50,000. From 2017 through 2022, Ulibarri allegedly used this tax shelter to conceal from the IRS over $3.5 million in income he earned.

To effectuate 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. He also allegedly re-structured his dental practice so that the majority of it was purportedly owned by one of the trusts. Ulibarri allegedly transferred nearly all the funds he earned from his dental practice to the bank accounts for the trusts and foundation he created. He allegedly used those funds to pay personal expenses, such as the mortgage on his home and his credit card bills. Finally, he allegedly filed false tax returns for himself and the trusts that assigned the income he earned and controlled from his practice to the trusts.     

In total, Ulibarri is alleged to have caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $1 million.

If convicted, Ulibarri faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Amanda R. Scott and Lauren K. Pope and Senior Litigation Counsel Corey J. Smith of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.