Wesley Snipes – Tax Evasion for Blade
Actor Wesley Snipes is known for many roles, but his “Blade” character certainly was his most notable. Well, Blade is going to prison for tax evasion.
It is always a bit odd that people who make a ton of money feel the urge to try to stiff the IRS and federal government. In this case, Wesley Snipes was sending money he made by acting out of the country without paying one red cent in taxes on it. He did this for roughly a decade and may have sent as much as $15 million.
The actual facts of the case were a bit odd. Snipes apparently paid his taxes as he should have. He then got involved with American Rights Litigators. They promised that they could get huge tax refunds for him in exchange for 20 percent of the total received as a fee. The basic idea was to act as tax protestors and Snipes fell for the claim hook, line and sinker.
American Rights Litigators was a tax protest group. The primary figure was Eddie Kahn. Using a number of different approaches, the “Litigators” essentially argued that a person was not required to pay taxes. The reasons ranged from the tax code being voluntary to it not covering individuals to states such as Florida not actually being ratified parts of the United States.
The question in Snipes trial was whether he was innocently misled or knew full well what he was doing. The determination of the jury was that he was misled. The felony charges were found in favor of Snipes, but he was found guilty of three misdemeanors. The court recently sentenced Snipes to three years in jail based on those convictions.
You might be wondering what happen to Mr. Kahn of the Litigators? He refused to participate in his trial and was found guilty of a host of charges and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.