Green Tax Promoter Gets 25 Years in $1.4 Billion Fraud Case (1)

A real estate developer who promoted green tax breaks was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday for selling $1.4 billion in fraudulent charitable deductions to wealthy investors and cheating the IRS out of $458 million in taxes.

Jack Fisher, 71, pioneered an industry that gave inflated tax deductions to syndicates of investors who promised not to develop land. Prosecutors argued at a two-month trial that Fisher used exaggerated appraisals and backdated documents to try to fool the Internal Revenue Service. He earned tens of millions of dollars, buying houses, an airplane and real estate.

US District Judge Timothy Batten ...