During his first term, Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp and then filled his cabinet with every one of his rich friends and benefactors. Now, during his second term, we are seeing the sequel of those actions.
When Donald Trump was campaigning for his 2024 election, he vowed to bring back the financial stability of the nation. He promised his followers that he would stop the governmental wastage of their tax dollars and increase work efficiency. So far, we have seen those words in action by stopping the funding of important research, mass firing, and hiring of a few questionable characters.
Among these new hirings is Frank Schuler IV. He has been named the new advisor to General Services Administration. The 57-year-old has been president and co-founder of Ornstein-Schuler. It is a real estate investment firm with headquarters in Atlanta. For many years, Schuler’s company was one of the most active marketers of “syndicated conservation easements,” which are tax-shelter agreements.
Frank Schuler: From Tax Scam Promoter to GSA Adviser https://t.co/tekVMPVIif
— Shar G💙 (@hapkidogal) February 18, 2025
His firm once focused on tax transactions that were deemed “abusive” and among “the worst of the worst tax scams” by the IRS. He was also criticized by a bipartisan Senate committee. With over $4 billion in denied deductions for thousands of his clients, Schuler has been fighting the tax authorities in court for years.
All this trump talk about “merit-based hiring,” but the majority of trump’s hires are ridiculously unqualified, including a drunken woman abuser, an anti-vaxxing worm-brain nutjob, and a Russian puppet.
And their boss is a twice-impeached, adjudicated rapist, convicted felon.… pic.twitter.com/LswNAiWJsB
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) January 31, 2025
Schuler by no means is a petty tax fraud, and the scheme with which they defrauded the government of large sums of money was well thought of. It was based on a loophole in the government’s effort to help those who give away their land to the government for national and federal purposes. These lands or Conservation easements can protect pristine land when the policy is utilized carefully. These land plots are sometimes utilized to create a public park and provide the landgiver with a charity tax deduction.
However, Schuler’s firm took advantage of these provisions. They turned the tax deductions into a money-making scheme for their rich clients.
His firm first buys a cheap piece of land. They would then usually hire a private appraiser to appraise the piece of under-developed land. They would file it as one with great untapped value and developmental potential. They would then go on to suggest that a piece of land could be made into a luxury resort or a park with tourism potential. They would mark up the potential values many times over than the purchase value. After that, they sold the easement donation stakes to wealthy people, who used the assessment to claim exorbitant tax deductions. These reduced their taxes by twice the amount they had originally invested.
ProPublica looked into the syndicated easement industry. This industry caused a loss of billions of dollars in tax revenue to the government in 2017. IRS, the government, and Congress have been up in arms against this practice for years. They have been through court cases, public warnings, and many other means to stop the scheme.
ProPublica: Trump Vowed to Clean Up Washington, Then His Team Hired a Man Who Pushed a Scam the IRS Called the “Worst of the Worst” https://t.co/VnFIuaqeCa pic.twitter.com/TMjQ77sjxC
— FOIA // FEED (@FOIAFeed) February 18, 2025
Schuler defeated those efforts with money, of course. The $11 million in lobbying expenses were given by promoters and by the Partnership for Conservation. It is a trade organization founded by Schuler . Congress was pressured by syndication advocates to stop funding the IRS crackdown.
Now, Donald Trump has brought the man who has been in a battle against him to the room for almost a decade.
It is assumed that under Trump and with his supreme court, all the cases against Schuler may eventually be dropped. No doubt, Donald Trump benefits here, though the exact nature of those is yet to be seen.
