Wesley Snipes, actor and convicted tax evader, sentenced to prison -The iPINIONS Journal

On January 30, before the jury in the tax evasion trial of actor Wesley Snipes began deliberating his fate, I published an article titled Actor Wesley Snipes takes on the IRS in the dumbest role of his life. And here, in part, is what I wrote:

His conviction, which I expect the jury to announce later today or tomorrow, should serve as a reminder that only big corporations can get away with paying no taxes. And I have just two words for anyone who is inclined to buy his line about being prosecuted because he’s black: Leona Hemsley!

Therefore, I was not at all surprised the next day when the jury convicted Snipes on three counts of failing to file tax returns. Nor was I surprised a week ago today when Judge William Terrell Hodges, citing his “history of contempt” for U.S. tax laws, sentenced him to the maximum three years in federal prison for his crimes.

This, despite Snipes’s eleventh-hour ploy for leniency by showing up to his sentencing hearing with a cheque for $5 million. Never mind that he owes the government millions more….

Snipes also offered a non-apology apology by conceding the obvious, namely, that he had made a “costly mistake.” He then added disingenuously that:

I am an idealistic, naïve, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually-motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance.

Prosecutors alleged that Snipes tried to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by trying to collect $11.4 million in fraudulent income tax refunds and failing to file returns for 1999 through 2004, despite earning over $35 million during that period.

Accordingly, the lead prosecutor summed up all that had to be said as follows: