Actor and tax protester Wesley Snipes has been convicted of not filing federal returns from 1999-2004 but acquitted of more serious fraud and conspiracy charges...He could be sentenced to three years in prison. The IRS says Snipes owes $11 million.
The jury returned the verdict on the third day of deliberations. He was accused by the government of trying to beat the IRS out of millions in tax payments.
Snipes and two co-defendants were indicted in 2006 for tax fraud and conspiracy. Snipes faced six additional counts of willful failure to file a tax return from 1999 to 2004, a period in which he signed two contracts for more than 10 million dollars on sequels in the "Blade" trilogy.
The star of the "Blade" films and "White Men Can't Jump" is among the most famous targets of an IRS criminal investigation, and his prosecution was key for the government. The actor used tax protest arguments long rejected by courts but still continuing to find adherents. For example, Snipes said the IRS's own code meant no citizen had to pay taxes on income earned in this country, and the agency had no legal authority to collect wages anyway, because it is not a proper government entity.
