Posted on 01/16/2008 3:08:55 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
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 actor could get up to 16 years in prison. The third charge for not filing claims for six years is a civil charge, according to one expert, and does not carry a prison sentence, though Snipes would be responsible for paying back taxes and fines if he is found guilty.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Did Willie Nelson ever serve one day? No!
Neither will Snipes.
Plleeeezzzze, can you say “race card?” I know you can; he is a minority, a “star”, one of the “beautiful people”. He will just get a slap on the wrist, will work out a “deal” with the feds, pay a fine, do some “community service spots” and won’t do a day of jail time. You heard it here first folks.
I’m in Ocala, don’t know why the story is datelined Miami, over 350 miles south, when Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tampa/St. Petersburg are all about 100 miles away. Our population is now majority northern immigrants, with about 35% native Floridians.
"consulting tax-avoidance professionals"! Simple white collar criminals have joined the PC movement.
Just whitey trying to keep the black man down.
Neither will Snipes.
But Chuck Berry served 4 months for it.
“But Chuck Berry served 4 months for it”
I can’t find that, all I found was this:
In December 1959 following an appearance in El Paso, Berry and his band visited nearby Juarez, Mexico. There he invited a fourteen year old Apache waitress Janice Escalanti from Yuma, Arizona, to work as a hat check girl at his nightclub Berry’s Club Bandstand in St. Louis. According to Berry, when he refused her advances she left in a fit of anger. On December 21 Escalanti arrest on a prostitution charge at a local hotel. This incident would lead to Berry being charged with violation of the Mann Act.. This federal statue forbid the transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. Berry was convicted to five years in prison and fined $5,000. An appeal was made based on racial comments made by the presiding judge and a new trial began in October, 1961. Most of the original verdict was upheld and Berry received three years at the Indiana Federal Prison and fined $10,000. Two months later he was transferred to Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas. He completed his sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri and was released on his birthday October 18, 1963.
http://www.history-of-rock.com/berrytwo.htm
Vampires must pay taxes too... just like the rest of us little people!
LLS
You forgot one of his "get out of jail" cards - Snipes is also Muslim. There's gotta be an angle there for him, too... /grin
wikipedia:
Third jail term, White House performance and final studio album (1979)
Berry’s type of touring style, traveling the “oldies” circuit in the 1970s — where he was often paid in cash by local promoters — added ammunition to the Internal Revenue Service’s accusations that Berry was a chronic income tax evader. Facing criminal sanction for the third time, Berry pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to four months imprisonment and 1,000 hours of community service — doing benefit concerts — in 1979.
At the request of Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry performed at The White House on June 1, 1979. [15] Also in 1979, Berry released Rockit for Atco Records, his last studio album to date.
Thanks for the info. I only remembered the Mann Act thing.
Just curious, does he support candidates who support higher taxes?
In fact, didn’t Willie stike a deal with the Feds? Didn’t he sign over his interest in the cd “IRS Tapes” to them as settlement of the outstanding monies due?
After all, the IRS wants their money, and Snipes can’t get the money if he’s dusting the chairs in a Federal pen, protecing his ass from a bunch of his fellow inmates.
I thought there was a three-year statue of limitations on income taxes. Did that change?
Nah. They can go back for a long time. Snipes is screwed. He better shut up and cut a deal.
Do you think he should? I don't think anyone should. Debtors prisons were done away with for a reason.
IIRC a 'few years ago' the IRS said you only have to keep your old tax records for three years. BUT they can still go back and audit for seven years.
Pretty sure this was during Bily-Jeff's last year (2000). I thought 'neat trick, toss your 'old' stuff then get audited and have no backup for the IRS.'
(again, going by memory)
Where's you hear that. There is no statute of limitations on income taxes that I'm aware of.
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