Employees of shuttered Pittsburgh tax filing franchises plead guilty

At least three former tax preparers for former Cititax Refund Co. franchises in Pittsburgh have pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns that prosecutors allege cheated the Internal Revenue Services out of millions of dollars.

The latest charged is Lakisha K. Pinkney, 42, previously of Pittsburgh.

Pinkney, now of Eastpointe, Mich., pleaded guilty this week to one count of filing false tax returns involving about $626,000 in false federal tax refunds for customers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

She worked at Cititax Tax Refund in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2013, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

There were at least three Pittsburgh-area franchises before the IRS ordered the franchises shutdown in 2016, prosecutors said. The businesses were previously known as Instant Tax Service. Their names changed to Cititax Refund Co. in 2012, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Two other former Cititax Refund Co. tax preparers recently entered guilty pleas.

On May 6, Daniel K. Hamilton of Arnold pleaded guilty to one count of preparing false returns for others.

Between 2010 and 2016, Hamilton prepared federal income tax returns which requested more than $2 million in false Earned Income Tax Credit refunds for taxpayers.

On April 30, Quincy K. Denson of Clairton pleaded guilty to two counts of filing of false federal income tax returns. An amount wasn’t available.