What started out as a lucrative legal career for a Georgia attorney has ended with a prison sentence.

This week, Vi Bui, a lawyer from Atlanta, was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for playing a key role in a massive tax fraud scheme involving fake conservation easement deductions.

The Scam: Making Millions from Fake Land Donations

Between 2012 and 2020, Bui worked as a partner at Sinnott & Co., an Atlanta firm caught up in a long-running scheme that revolved around abusive syndicated conservation easement tax shelters.

Here’s how it worked: Bui and his co-conspirators — including Jack Fisher and James Sinnott, both of whom are already serving decades-long sentences — created shady partnerships that bought land or land-owning companies.

Then, they would “donate” conservation easements on that land, claiming they were protecting the environment.

But that wasn’t the real plan.

The appraisals of the land were wildly inflated, and the partnerships then used these bloated numbers to claim massive fake tax deductions.

Wealthy clients would buy into the partnerships to score big on those fraudulent write-offs — even if they joined after the donation or after the tax year had ended.

Faking It All: Documents, Appraisals, and Sham Votes

To make the scheme look legit to the IRS, Bui and others went to extreme lengths.

They backdated documents, including checks and partnership agreements, to trick auditors into thinking the timeline was legal.

They also tried to make the operations seem like real real-estate development ventures by organizing phony votes about what to do with the land — even though the decisions were already made.

And they drafted piles of paperwork designed to hide the true purpose of the partnerships.

Caught in the Act: Undercover Agents and a 2018 Sting

In one particularly bold moment, Bui was caught red-handed during a 2018 undercover operation.

Thinking the IRS was auditing a taxpayer, Bui prepared backdated documents for a 2014 tax shelter deal — all in an effort to make it look like the paperwork was done before the tax deduction was claimed.

He Didn’t Just Help Others Cheat — He Did It Too

Bui didn’t just help rich clients lie to the IRS.

He also used the very same tax shelters to avoid paying his own taxes.

From 2013 through 2018, he filed personal tax returns claiming phony deductions, boosting his income while dodging the taxman.

In total, his role in the scheme brought him substantial personal financial gain — until it all came crashing down.

The Sentence: Jail Time, Restitution, and Supervised Release

For his role in the fraud, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. sentenced Bui to:

16 months in federal prison
1 year of supervised release after prison
$8.25 million in restitution to the IRS

Who Was Behind the Investigation?

This wasn’t a small-time probe.

The case was investigated by both the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Legal teams from both the Justice Department’s Tax Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Georgia worked together on the prosecution, with support from North Carolina authorities as well.

A Bigger Picture: Conservation Easement Tax Fraud Crackdown

This case is part of a broader federal crackdown on abusive tax shelters, especially those involving fraudulent conservation easements.

These schemes are often marketed to wealthy investors under the guise of charity or land preservation, but in reality, they’re just a way to avoid paying what’s owed to the IRS.