A North Carolina man was sentenced today to 12 months in prison for his role in conspiring to defraud the United States in a syndicated conservation easement tax shelter scheme – involving inflated charitable contribution deductions – that claimed more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent tax deductions.Īccording to court documents and statements made in court, from 2008 to 2019, Walter “Terry” Douglas Roberts II, of Flat Rock, North Carolina, conspired with others to fraudulently inflate the value of the conservation easements upon which the tax deductions were based.Īt the trial of his co-conspirators, Jack Fisher and James Sinnott, Roberts testified that he became a licensed appraiser in 2007 and began providing appraisals of conservation easements that same year.