Wesley Snipes to Serve Three Years in Prison for Unpaid Taxes
April 25, 2008

Actor Wesley Snipes, star of such films as Jungle Fever, New Jack City, White Men Can’t Jump, and the Blade trilogy, was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison by a U.S. District Court Judge for failing to file taxes to an alleged total of $2.7 million in back taxes.

Snipes was acquitted of felony fraud and conspiracy charges in February, but the law caught up to the Blade star after the courts confirmed Snipes hadn’t filed a tax return since 1998. Sources report that Judge William Terrell Hodges revealed to the court that Snipes has displayed a history of contempt with regard to his taxes and handed down the maximum penalty for the charges, as some sources report was an action taken to make an example out of the star given his evasion. In an attempt to stave of incarceration, Snipes offered the government $5 million dollars in an effort to serve time in house arrest instead of prison. Despite Snipes’ attempt to make good on his taxes and testimony to his character from the likes of Denzel Washington and Woody Harrelson, the Judge determined Snipes would be sent to prison for his crime.

According to the Associated Press, Snipes admitted to the court via a written and prepared apologetic statement that he indeed made mistakes in his life, "I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance..."

The AP goes on to report that Snipes will still be a free man until the court notifies him of the appropriate time to surrender to authorities. However, Snipes and his lawyers have also let the court know they will be seeking an appeal.

[Source: Associated Press]