Facing formidable Uncle Sam, action star and fourth-degree Karate black belt, Wesley Snipes has been sentenced to three years for tax evasion, the maximum sentence.

Prosecutors had requested three years, one year for each of Snipes’ convictions of willfully failing to file a tax return.

Snipes’ lawyers offered three dozen letters from family members, friends and even fellow actors Woody Harrelson and Denzel Washington attesting to his good character. They argued he should get only probation, because all three convictions were misdemeanors and the actor had no previous criminal record.

See also: LALate – Wesley Snipes – Jail Three Years and TMZ: Wesley Gets Three Years

Earlier this year, Snipes was aquitted of the more serious charges:

Mr. Snipes was found not guilty on two felony charges of fraud and conspiracy. He was also acquitted on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file tax returns or to pay taxes, but was convicted on three others. He faces up to three years in prison.

Mr. Snipes had become an unlikely public face for the tax-denier movement, whose members maintain that Americans are not obligated to pay income taxes and that the government extracts taxes from its citizens illegally.

Two co-defendants — Eddie Ray Kahn, a promoter of tax denial, and Douglas Rosile, a disbarred accountant — were convicted on separate felony counts.

“The verdict shows that promoters face serious jail time” but clients who follow their advice will face a lesser but still-serious risk, said JJ MacNab, a Maryland insurance analyst who attended the trial and is writing a book about tax deniers.

[...]

Mr. Snipes, 45, was indicted in October 2006 on two felony charges: fraud for filing a false claim for a $7 million refund (of taxes paid in 1997, before he stoped paying taxes), and conspiracy with his two co-defendants to defraud the government.

Mr. Snipes was also charged with six misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns or to pay taxes on at least $58 million he and his film company earned from 1999 to 2004.

(Source: New York Times: Wesley Snipes Is Acquitted of Tax Felonies)

Read more:

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• New York Times: Wesley Snipes
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