Wesley Snipes Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison
He may play a tough vampire slaying hero Blade, but he's gone from hero straight to zero with his dodged tax bill. We heard this story a while back but the big man Wesley Snipes has been sentenced to three years in prison for failing to file his tax return during 1999- 2001.
We've seen it all before though, remember good old Ken Dodd and a whole host of other great stars from the annals of British entertainment? They liked to do things the old-fashioned way like sticking tenners in flower pots or under the mattress all to avoid the tax man getting his paws on that hard earned lolly.
Maybe our Wes had the same idea, he's been shot at and bitten by vamps, call it danger money, call it greed or call it just downright 'trying to use celebrity to get of a scrape.' Here's what he said:
"I am an idealistic, naïve, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance." Playing dumb in other words. Next he'll be blaming his accountant…
Obviously no one bought that and the prosecutors really went to town on Wesley, and made a right proper example out of him. And no amount of letters attesting to his good character could help. Nope, pats on the back from mates Denzel Washington and Woody Harrelson did sweet FA to help.
The judge William Terrell Hodges wasn't best pleased either and wasn't going for the leniency, he said that Wezzer had displayed a "history of contempt over a period of time" for US tax laws. And was quite ready to dish out the 3 year sentence one year for each he had neglected his tax return. He added: "In my mind these are serious crimes, albeit misdemeanors."
The law reckons that he made $13.8m (€8.8m) for that time period and owed $2.7m (€1.7m) and he even offered to pay up the $5m (€3.1m) he now owes to avoid doing time. Yup he may look all cool in that New Line Cimena shot for Blade but we reckon Dumb and Dumber is more apt.
So let that be a lesson to us all, don't ignore the red letters from HM Revenue & Customs otherwise you'll be dropping the soap on the inside.
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