Snipes surrenders on tax charges
Blade actor to face IRS in tax fraud trial in March
Movie star accused of falsely claiming refunds worth $12-million
The story of Wesley Snipes evading taxes is so odd that it’s hard to believe it’s real. Here are the highlights of the case.
On Friday he surrendered in Orlando, Fla., on federal charges that he tried to collect $11.4-million in fraudulent income tax refunds and failed to file returns after 1998.
At his initial court appearance in Ocala, Snipes pleaded not guilty and was released on a $1-million bond (USD).
A judge also granted Snipes, 44, permission to return to Namibia to finish filming Gallow Walker, an independent movie in which he plays a cowboy named Kaos. He must be back in the U.S. by January 10 at which time he’ll surrender his passport, pending a trial scheduled for March.
The L.A. Times reports that the Blade star is accused of attempting to cheat the Internal Revenue Service out of $12-million in fraudulent refunds from 1996 to 1997. The IRS also claims that Snipes did not file any returns from 1999 to 2004. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 16 years in a federal prison.
Snipes was indicted Oct. 17, along with alleged co-conspirators Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile. Those two men ran American Rights Litigators, a Florida accounting firm that specializes in circumventing the IRS.
“It appears I’m to be the scapegoat, because there’s more public interest in ‘celebrities gone bad’ than ‘rich people being taken advantage of,” Snipes said in a statement.
As this bizarre story develops we’ll keep you posted.
