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Fessum Ogbazion owned and Managed a national tax return preparation company.  He was found guilty of fraud and tax crimes.

Instant Tax Service was founded by Ogbazion and was so successful that he franchised the companies through ITS Financial LLC.  It was through ITS where he began advertising tax refund anticipation loans through a third-party lender.  ITS had no such lender to fund the loans.  Ogbazion used the false ads to lure customers to apply for a loan they didn’t qualify for.  He then used the loan applications to prepare and file income tax returns, most of the time without the customers permission.  ITS defrauded thousands and collected more than 70 million dollars in fees between 2006 and 2011.

Ogbazion failed to pay 1.3 million dollars in payroll taxes he got from ITS employees during 2009 and 2010.  He dodged IRS attempts to collect these funds by guiding business revenue to nominee accounts, placing assets in the names of nominee entities and making false statements to an IRS revenue officer.

Ogbazion was ordered to pay $933,708 in restitution to the United States and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.[/vc_column_text][us_image image=”1723″][/vc_column][/vc_row]