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After nearly three years in prison, Wesley Snipes is almost free man. The Blade star was released this week from a Pennsylvania prison and transferred to house arrest after being admitted in 2010 on charges of federal tax evasion. According to TMZ, the 50-year-old actor left the McKean Federal Corrections on Tuesday, several months shy of his 36 month sentence. Snipes is no longer listed as an inmate at the rural facility, and is now listed on the website of the Federal Bureau of Prisons as being under the watchful eye of the New York Communty Corrections Office. Officers will...

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday denied a bid for appeal from Wesley Snipes, a film star convicted on federal tax evasion charges, CNN reported. Snipes, 48, is best known for his work in the movies “White Men Can’t Jump,” “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” and “Jungle Fever,” as well as the “Blade” trilogy. He was convicted last year of failing to file tax returns in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and began serving a three-year prison sentence in December. The actor has blamed his advisers for the lapse in payments. CNN said Snipes did not immediately comment on...

Actor Wesley Snipes reported to a medium-security Pennsylvania prison Thursday to begin a three-year sentence for failing to file tax returns. The 48-year-old actor is now incarcerated in McKean Federal Correctional Institution in Lewis Run, officials said. Snipes' attorney said he is appealing his client's misdemeanor convictions for not filing tax returns in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Snipes was acquitted of felony charges. Snipes is nervous, he said, but hopeful that his prayers will be answered.

With a censure vote looming this afternoon, Rep. Charlie Rangel clashed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) in a closed-door meeting this morning, as the New York Democrat and his supporters demanded the right to seek a lesser punishment for a series of ethics violations. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) came to the floor shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon to offer the censure resolution against Rangel, who was found guilty of 11 ethics violations related to his personal finances. Lofgren and Bonner are taking one hour of floor time for the resolution, half of which will be...

OCALA – A federal judge today rejected movie star Wesley Snipes' demand for a new trial and ordered the actor to surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a 36-month prison sentence for tax-related crimes. In a 17-page order, U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges said, "The Defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence by the Court of Appeals; and he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his present claims, during all of which he has remained at liberty. The...

Wesley Snipes had only been convicted of misdemeanors concerning his failure to file income tax returns. And the action movie star had submitted written character testimonials from Denzel Washington, Woody Harrelson, and television's Judge Joe Brown to assist him in the judge’s consideration of his sentencing. Through his attorneys, Snipes asked for probation rather than prison, which is the normal sentence with a conviction of someone without a criminal history. Still, in spite of it all, U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison. Why did this happen? Well, in February 2008, a federal jury...

Wesley Snipes was sentenced to 36 months in prison, Thursday. Snipes was convicted of three misdemeanor charges for not filing his taxes. Three years was the maximum sentence allowed. Snipes’ defense team spent the morning arguing that he should not have to go to prison

CRIME PAYS AS WESLEY DOESN'T By ANDREA PEYSER February 2, 2008 -- OCALA, Fla. - Leona Helmsley was right: Only the little people pay taxes. The message, fellow citizens, is: If you're rich, famous and have a stubborn streak as wide as the Suwanne River, you too don't have to pay your fair share. Take it from Wesley Snipes! The star leaped out of federal court here like he'd just won a part in a blockbuster. And he sort of did. "I'm happy!" crowed the man who cowed Uncle Sam. Then he saw me, and he fixed his million-dollar, tax-avoiding...

<p>Even Hollywood couldn't have written a more ideal script for the Internal Revenue Service than actor Wesley Snipes' tax-fraud trial.</p> <p>At a time when millions of Americans are buckling down to prepare their taxes, Snipes is being cast as a villainous example of the dangers of joining with Internet-fueled activists who claim the IRS has no authority to collect taxes.</p>

MIAMI — Hot-shot action hero Wesley Snipes faces losing his movie fortune and possibly a lengthy prison stay for his failure to pay income taxes for the years 1999-2004, according to legal experts. The star of such films as the “Blade” trilogy and director Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever” is charged in an Ocala, Fla., court with conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, filing a false claim for $11 million in refunds for the years 1996 and 1997 and for not filing tax returns for six years beginning in 1999. The first two charges are considered felony offenses for which the...

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan 10 - (Reuters) - Actor Wesley Snipes paid no federal taxes on $37.9 million in income from 1999 to 2004, even after the Internal Revenue Service told him in 2002 that he was under criminal investigation, according to documents filed ahead of Snipes' tax fraud trial. The trial was set to begin on Monday in U.S. District Court in Ocala, Florida, 80 miles northwest of Orlando and the celebrity enclave of Isleworth, where prosecutors say Snipes lived at the time of the suspected fraud. Snipes, 45, was charged in a 2006 indictment along with a known tax...

With the start of his tax evasion trial three weeks away, actor Wesley Snipes just fired his high-powered legal team, a move that a federal judge yesterday blasted as a transparent ploy to secure a court continuance. Claiming that his five-lawyer team was incompetent, Snipes yesterday filed a motion to continue his trial, which is set to open October 22 in U.S. District Court in Ocala, Florida. Until Snipes fired him, William Martin--who represents Michael Vick and Senator Larry Craig--headed a five-lawyer team defending Snipes on felony tax and conspiracy charges. But Snipes's request for a trial delay was almost...

JUNE 8--Facing trial in a bizarre tax avoidance scheme, actor Wesley Snipes claims that prosecutors used race as a factor in deciding to charge him with failure to file six years worth of IRS returns. In a motion to dismiss an eight-count indictment filed last October, Snipes argues that he is the victim of selective prosecution.

Call off the manhunt, we have a Wesley Snipes spotting. A Namibian film official has announced that the actor, currently wanted on charges of tax fraud in the U.S., has been in the African country for the past two months shooting a movie. "It is confirmed," Edwin Kanguatjivi, chief executive officer of the Namibia Film Commission, told Reuters. "He has been in Namibia since the end of August." According to the wire service, Snipes has been filming Gallowwalker in the desert near Swakopmund, the same coastal town that was home to a prenatal Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the...

Man, I am screwed.  

Actor Wesley Snipes denies being the father of a child belonging to a Michigan City woman, who claims she met the action film star at a crack house in Chicago. And, in a court complaint calling the mother "a mentally ill former crack addict" who made claims about other celebrities, the lead actor in "Blade" and other major box office hits feels it's ludicrous that authorities in LaPorte County and elsewhere want a sample of his DNA to verify or disprove the claims. Snipes is suing LaPorte County Prosecutor Rob Beckman and his wife, Priscilla Jo, who runs the child...