Wesley Snipes Ordered to Serve Three Years in Prison

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wesley-snipes-ordered-serve-three-47534

Wesley Snipes Ordered to Serve Three Years in Prison
11/19/2010
The “Blade” actor was hoping to receive a new trial after lawyers received jurors’ emails claiming other members had predetermined his fate.

A federal judge rejected actor Wesley Snipes' wish for a new trial and ordered the Blade star to serve out his three-year prison term for tax-related crimes, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

"The Defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence by the Court of Appeals; and he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his present claims, during all of which he has remained at liberty. The time has come for the judgment to be enforced," U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges said in his 17-page order.

The Orlando-born Snipes was convicted in 2008 of failing to file federal tax returns. The prosecution said the actor attempted to avoid paying millions in taxes and obstructed the IRS.

Snipes' lawyer Daniel Meachum said in an email to the Orlando Sentinel that the decision "is just shocking," adding that his client "is very disappointed but staying strong and positive."

Two jurors sent emails to Snipes' lawyers alleging that other members made the conclusion that he was guilty before the trial officially started. Meachum also believed that one of the witnesses Kenneth Starr, who recently pleaded guilty to fraud, gave a "tainted" testimony against Snipes.

"We were hopeful that he had convinced Judge Hodges that the government's witness, Ken Starr, had perjured himself and that the government knew of his criminal activities and the predetermined minds of three jurors, but we obviously fell short in accomplishing that," Meachum said.

Snipes could challenge Hodges' ruling and ask the Supreme Court to review the case, though he would most likely be imprisoned during that period.

Hodges' order requires the actor to "surrender himself" upon receiving notice from the U.S. Marshal Service or the Bureau of Prisons, though details of when Snipes must turn himself in were not given.

Free Wesley Snipes!!!

http://apnews.excite.com/image/20080424/People_Wesley_Snipes.sff_FLPS103_20080424185255.html

Wesley Snipes gestures as he leaves federal court after he was sentenced to threes years in prison for willful failure to file a tax return on April 24, 2008 at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Ocala, Fla.. Snipes was acquitted in February of five counts including felony fraud and conspiracy charges.

Jury acquits Snipes of tax fraud

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_en_mo/snipes_tax_trial

Jury acquits Snipes of tax fraud
By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer
2-1-2008

Action star Wesley Snipes was found not guilty of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return.

Snipes and two co-defendants, a delicensed accountant and a tax protest leader, were indicted in 2006. Snipes was also indicted on six counts of willful failure to file a tax return from 1999-2004, a period in which he signed two contracts for more than $10 million on sequels in the "Blade" trilogy. He was acquitted on three of those and convicted on the others. He could be sentenced to three years in prison after originally facing a possible 16 years.

Co-defendants Eddie Ray Kahn, the founder of a tax protest group, and Douglas P. Rosile, the accountant, were convicted by the same jury of tax fraud and conspiracy.

Snipes sat expressionless until all of his verdicts were read. Then, defense attorney Robert Bernhoft put his hand on the actor's leg and Snipes nodded in relief.

Rosile grimaced when his verdict was read. Kahn was not in attendance. He remains behind bars and argues the court has no jurisdiction to try him.

The verdict came on the third full day of deliberations.

Snipes, who starred in 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.

Snipes' attorneys claimed he was victimized by crooked advisers, and tried for years to get the IRS to explain whether he owed taxes. Later, the actor threatened the government and individual agents in his pursuit, declaring himself a "nonresident alien" not subject to tax laws.

Prosecutors say Snipes paid taxes in the 1990s, but changed his mind after meeting Kahn in 2000. He allegedly stopped filing returns, illegally sought $11 million in 1996 and 1997 taxes paid and drew fake checks to pay the U.S. Treasury.

Kahn founded the central Florida tax protest group American Rights Litigators and its successor, Guiding Light of God Ministries. He has been using tax scams since at least the early 1980s, according to government documents, and refused to defend himself in court against these charges.

Rosile, a CPA who lost his licenses in Florida and Ohio, allegedly prepared the fraudulent documents for Snipes, along with numerous other Kahn clients. He and Kahn would split a percentage of any fraudulent tax return that slipped through, their alleged agreement showed.

In a yearslong battle with the IRS, Snipes drew on the dubious "861 argument." So named because it refers to Section 861 of the tax code, the law holds that foreign-source wages of U.S. citizens are taxable. But tax protesters take that to mean only such income is subject to tax, and no wages made in this country are.

Judge and jury have long rejected those ideas, but there are exceptions. A few have won acquittal because the jury thought they sincerely believed they did not have to pay taxes.

The IRS bears a unique burden of proof in criminal tax cases. The agency must show not only that someone broke the law, but he or she did so with willful, bad purpose to defraud the government.