Trump Vowed to Clean Up Washington, Then His Team Hired a Man Who Pushed a Scam the IRS Called the “Worst of the Worst”

Frank Schuler IV , the 57-year-old co-founder and longtime president of Ornstein-Schuler , an Atlanta -based real estate investment company.

His firm was for years among the most prolific promoters of tax-shelter deals known as “syndicated conservation easements” Schuler and his colleagues exploited a tax deduction that was created to reward landowners who give up development rights for their acreage.

They then sold stakes in the easement donation to rich individuals, who claimed wildly inflated tax deductions.

Ornstein-Schuler dropped out of syndicated easement business in 2019 , citing “recent developments and the uncertainty related to the conservation and gifting of property’s property” Firm has filed more than 100 tax court cases involving its transactions, contesting more than $4 billion in disallowed charitable deductions from some 2,000 investors.

Ornstein has also gone on the attack against the IRS , claiming that the agency had failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents.