More than eight years after a judge ordered his Instant Tax Service closed, founder Fessum Ogbazion, of Cincinnati has been sentenced to prison. Ogbazion must serve one year and one day for tax fraud charges and repay the government $933,708.Between 2006 and $2011, ITS, based in Dayton, Ohio, collected more than $70 million in fees. In November 2013, a federal shut down ITS and barred Ogbazion from the tax preparation busines for widespread fraud and deception.
For example, the chain advertised tax refund anticipation loans through an independent third-party lender, even though it had no agreement with a lender. ITS failed to pay $1.3 million in payroll taxes due from ITS and another firm during four tax quarters in 2009 and 2010 with Ogbazion hiding assets and lying to an IRS revenue officer.
Ogbazion was convicted by a federal jury on June 6, 2017, of tax evasion, willful failure to withhold and pay over employment taxes, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and bank fraud. A court later dismissed five counts of wire fraud.
