A dentist in northern Colorado was sentenced to over 3 years in prison this week for concealing millions in an illegal tax shelter.

According to authorities, Ryan Ulibarri, who owned and operated Ulibarri Family Dentistry in Fort Collins, purchased an abusive-trust tax shelter in 2016. Ulibarri used the tax shelter to conceal income and create false tax deductions through trusts and a foundation that he created and controlled.

The Department of Justice said Ulibarri signed trust instruments that named him as a trustee of three trusts and a foundation, and then opened bank accounts in the name of each. Authorities said he recruited friends to falsely sign the trust instruments as the creators of the trusts in order to hide the fact that he created them. Despite being warned by attorneys and CPAs that a trust in Colorado can't own a dental practice, he transferred the majority ownership of his dental practice to his business trust.

Through the tax shelter, Ulibarri concealed over $5 million in income from his dental practice from the IRS and evaded paying more than $1.6 million in federal and state income taxes owed on it.

Authorities said he transferred the income into the various trust and foundation accounts to make it appear the money didn't belong to him, then used those funds to pay for personal expenses, including his mortgage, credit card bills, boats, luxury vacations and professional baseball season tickets. Ulibarri also filed false tax returns for himself, his practice, the trusts and the foundation with fraudulent deductions. The DoJ said he disguised personal living expenses as trust expenses and charitable donations.

On Wednesday, Ulibarri was sentenced to 41 months in prison for tax evasion. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay a $150,000 fine. Ulibarri must pay $1,449,121 in restitution to the IRS and $166,966 in restitution to the Colorado Department of Revenue as well.