Investors lose money to fake charitable tax strategies like the SETI scam
19 posts across 8 communities in the last 60 days; 47% from r/tax.
“I would like to join as well. It seems like NE Solutions was the problem. Parkland was the broker.”
“Keeping it short: No. There is no economic substance to what is being promoted, OR you are taking on debt without realizing it. Bottom line, you can't deduct money that is not yours, that you did not spend, or which you are not liable to repay (see "at risk limitation")”
“Sorry it happened to you too! Yeah, my money is on someone at fidelity messed up! I’ll definitely stay on them till this issue is resolved.”
Taxpayers are being scammed by fraudulent charitable tax strategies, such as the 2025 ParkHill/N.E. Solutions/Neural Earth/SETI scheme. Victims lose six-figure sums after being misled about tax deductions, with no legitimate documentation provided by the organizations involved.
SOURCES (48)
“On its face this makes no logical sense, but I’ll still need to sit with it for a while to give it some more thought.”
“They are paying huge amounts for patents on the technology. They could kept that money for themselves. I guess they're really bad scammed than.”
Counterparty risk is real... Pay the tax, take the money.
“I have been engaging with, and already paid a 'sign on fee', to a CPA firm (The Tax Planning Pros) who recently pointed me in the direction of Thomas Barber and Parkhill to pursue the same strategy outlined above for the 2026 tax year. The company they are directing people toward now is DNA Vibe and the charity is called National Foundation for Integrative Medicine (NFIM). Seems that several people on this thread feel they were scammed. Was anyone working with Tax Planning Pros as the CP”
“i was also impacted - i DMd a few of you. any ideas on how we can recover the funds? i worry they will flee the country”
“Please share, was this a trust scam? One of those nongrantor irrevocable discretionary not a spendthrift trust ?”
“Just lost one who got baited into believe this, honestly feel so bad for them. We obviously can’t go along with illegal tax evasion schemes so I’m going to drop them, either for 2025 with no scam in place or 2026 when they theoretically would do it. Scam is essentially convincing client to put interest into an irrevocable trust and misreading DNI as taxable income and following 643 to say somehow corpus isn’t taxable income. And also saying income allocated to “corpus” is deferred. And also clai”
“lot of people here making excuses. To answer the question, they are not stupid. They are gaming the system.”
“I would like to join as well. It seems like NE Solutions was the problem. Parkland was the broker.”
“Yes brokerage. They sent me the tax statement but at the time I ignored it because I didn’t know what it was. Now it’s Been 4 years.”
“There is also a large arbitration against Mark Bianchi and Head Genetics, Fabian MacLaren for $60Mil. Major red flags all around, beware. I understand the SEC froze $60Mil in investor funds in a 2024 deal gone bad. Dont say you werent warned.”
“The issue is Mark Bianchi/ParkHill: There is movement to create a Class Action here. If there is a way to reach you, we run a national firm and may be able to collaborate.”
“Keeping it short: No. There is no economic substance to what is being promoted, OR you are taking on debt without realizing it. Bottom line, you can't deduct money that is not yours, that you did not spend, or which you are not liable to repay (see "at risk limitation")”
“Not that it applies in 100% of cases, but there is a reason "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" is an adage.”
“There are a ton of strategies with RSUs, ISOs, SARs, etc paired with donating shares to DAFs, tax-loss harvest, gift-lumping, K-1 depletions.... Most CPAs don't see enough of the full picture. This is what your advisor should be doing for you.”
“Using Schwab as well. It's very easy to fund and to recommend grants. When did I start it? Well, I had stock with a very low basis in a company that was acquired for cash. So it was a taxable event that I would have preferred to avoid but could not. I also had income that took me into the top tax bracket, so the charitable deduction was well worth it. Additionally, I had a sequence of expected yearly charitable donations that I knew I would be coming down the pipeline for years to come. So i”
“I understand the risk; I'm just not sure if it's real. I'll add your voice the "yes it's real" side. As far as finding someone I trust, what I'd really like to find is some official word from the IRS about it. A publication, a notice, a tax court ruling. Something that's not someone's opinion, even an opinion I pay for after finding someone I trust. I looked around for something like this myself but couldn't find anything definitive, only people saying i”
“Just so any clowns are aware—charitable donations to foundations by rich people do NOT increase their wealth. They are always gifts. The tax benefits are always worth less than the value of the assets they are donating.”
Yeah investments that the “church” has paid for. What a crook!
“Question is can you hold the CPA firm that pointed you in the direction of Parkhill accountable? They made a commission on your investment and most are not licenced to do that. Just sad that a CPA (the trusted advisor) would point clients in the direction of a bad tax deduction just to make a commission.”
“Right, but someone mentioned it has a high risk of being scrutinized by IRS as it is not entirely cosher in their books.”
“Keep in mind that SETI is not the problem they run a very real and respected charity. They do good work. The problem is on the Parkhill side.”
“Hello, I know this deal well. From the start it voilated the IRC for donation tax deductions. Parkhill presented it as being legal and within the IRC code. Many people invested a lot of money and may not get any return of the investment and will be left with only the deduction for the investment amount lost. Plus a huge 2025 tax bill as they were planning on this deduction to reduce the taxes they owed for 2025. Keep in mind that the advisory firms that recommended this strategy (??) got paid a”
“Please remember to keep conversation where it can be seen and reviewed by everyone. Offering or requesting DMs is not allowed here due to the no soliciting rule and the amount of scams that go on DMs.”
“Please remember to keep conversation where it can be seen and reviewed by everyone. Offering or requesting DMs is not allowed here due to the no soliciting rule and the amount of scams that go on DMs.”
“Sorry it happened to you too! Yeah, my money is on someone at fidelity messed up! I’ll definitely stay on them till this issue is resolved.”
“Likely wouldn't have done anything to stop the IRS request, but you can turn on " Money Transfer Lockdown " to help avoid similar scams to other accounts from Fidelity.”
“Yeah I just meant it's another common tax misconception. Getting a tax deduction for giving stuff away isn't making anyone rich lol.”
“Yeah, this violates the simple principle of too good to be true. Spending $1 on a tax deduction means you only save (at most) 37 cents of tax. Anyone who claims you can spend $1 and save more than $1 in taxes is probably selling you a tax scheme.”
“The Seti Institute is an old and respected 501c3. I doubt very much they were involved, and of course they never saw the funds or they would have produced not a K1 but an IRS gift acknowledgment directly to you the donor, the person who would be claiming the tax deduction, as required by the IRS within as I remember six months of receipt of the donation. Most organizations produce the acknowledgment a whole lot faster than that. I think he knows he's been scammed, he's trying to find out”