Wesley Snipes Looking at 3-Year Sentence
April 15, 2008

It wasn't all that long ago that Wesley Snipes was at the top of the star ladder, but time has not been kind to the action hero and he hit a career-low today, making headlines for tax evasion that could land him up to three years in jail. That's what the U.S. prosecutors are recommending that the Blade star serve on top of a $5 million fine for failing to file his income taxes. Anyone else think it's not a coincidence that the recommendation comes on April 15th, Tax Day? The government was clearly intent on making an example of Wesley Snipes, who they accuse of "brazen defiance" in the face of U.S. tax laws aimed at cheating the government out of $41 million, according to a court document filed today by U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill. The post offices are still open tax payers. You don't want to share a bunk with Wesley Snipes.

According to Reuters, the recommendation was filed yesterday but released today. O'Neill wrote, "This case cries out for the statutory maximum term of imprisonment, as well as a substantial fine, because of the seriousness of defendant Snipes' crimes and because of the singular opportunity this case presents to deter tax crime nationwide."

Wesley Snipes was convicted in February on three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file federal tax returns in 1999, 2000, and 2001. He's looking at a year for each count. The star of Passenger 57 was acquitted on two felony charges related to an accusation of filing false claims and fraud in actually seeking millions of dollars in refunds in other tax years. In other words, according to the government, Wesley Snipes tried to get massive refunds for several years and then just stopped filing tax returns. Now he's looking at up to three years in jail. Consider it a cautionary tale.

The sentencing recommendation also named two men, who were convicted at that earlier trial of working with Wesley Snipes on conspiracy to defraud and false-claim charges related to American Rights Litigators/Guiding Light of God ministries, a Florida-based tax protest organization. They accuse the men of working with Snipes to "brazenly wage a campaign" against the Internal Revenue Service through phony claims, filings and demands to the agency and making Freedom of Information Act requests for IRS records that were deemed frivolous.

The 45-year-old Wesley Snipes broke through in Wildcats and Major League in the '80s and went on to star in King of New York, Mo' Better Blues, New Jack City, Jungle Fever, White Men Can't Jump, Passenger 57, Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Money Train, The Fan, Murder at 1600, One Night Stand, U.S. Marshals, and Blade. Things started to slide downhill for Wesley Snipes in the '00s with The Art of War, Blade II, Undisputed, and Blade:Trinity, a financial disaster so deep that it basically ran Snipes out of Hollywood. All of his films since then have gone straight to DVD.