BATON ROUGE - A man has been barred from preparing state income tax returns for others.

A judge issued the injunction against Joseph Gillies at the request of the Louisiana Department of Revenue.

"The injunction issued May 29, 2019, bars Gillies permanently from preparing any Louisiana tax returns other than his own," the department said.

Gillies was arrested in 2017 on felony charges for a tax fraud scheme involving "ghost" companies and phony business losses in order to claim $768,740 in improper tax refunds. Numerous clients told investigators they had not reported any business losses when they provided Gillies with their tax records.

Officials say Gillies pleaded guilty in October 2018 to one count of tax evasion.