The former owner of Pinky’s Famous Pizza in Medford was sentenced to prison Wednesday in federal court in Boston on tax charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Nikita Yanakopulos, 40, of Medford, who owned and operated the restaurant between 2000 and 2017, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, authorities said in a statement.

This past February, Yanakopulos pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in filing false tax forms. He paid some employees in cash but did not disclose these payments to his payroll service or make the required withholding payments to the IRS, according to authorities.


Yanakopulos’s cash payments totaled roughly $675,000 over the years—he therefore avoided paying approximately $175,000 in taxes and Medicare, authorities said.

In 2011, Yanakopulos was arrested on a drug trafficking charge after police allegedly found more than $750,000 worth of marijuana in his pickup truck.