This is a “mug shot” of Wesley Snipes, taken by U.S. Marshals after being sentenced to three years in prison for three misdemeanor sentences for willful tax evasion on May 1, 2008.
Why was it such a strong sentence? According to court information, the government argued that this wasn’t just simple tax evasion.
Trial and Heirs website broke down the case against him, saying:
Snipes felt that the tax laws of the United States did not apply to him and he willfully chose not to pay taxes. Instead, Snipes used what many people call a “pure trust” (which some call a “constitutional trust”). Contrary to what the name implies, this is not a legitimate trust at all. It’s actually a scam.
Snipes transferred his assets and business holdings into the pure trust, arguing that he no longer owned them, and it removed his earnings from the jurisdiction of the United States. Because of this (and other reasons), Snipes felt he didn’t owe any taxes. Accordingly, between the years of 1999 and 2004, he didn’t file income tax returns, despite earnings exceeding $37 million. The government determined he owed more than $15 million in taxes for these years.
They go on to detail that Snipes aggressively pushed trusts and other tax-avoidance mechanisms onto his employees and people He dealt with.
The government alleged that Snipes attempted to obtain fraudulent tax refunds using a tax protester theory called the "861 argument", which is an argument that the domestic income of U.S. citizens and residents is not taxable. Snipes also sent three fictitious "bills of exchange" for $14 million to the Internal Revenue Service.
Snipes’ co-defendants, Douglas P. Rosile and Eddie Ray Kahn, were also convicted on the conspiracy and false claim charges in connection with the income tax refund claims filed for Snipes.
Kahn was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Rosile (below, left) was sentenced to 4 years.
Snipes was released in 2013. He co-starred in the third installment of Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables franchise in 2014.
Snipes was A-List for a short while, with some good hits. But then his movies started to go downhill with bad reviews and lackluster box office performance. He had some run-ins with the law for illegal firearm possession and a high-speed chase with a motorcycle. Both were misdemeanors.
When he starred in Blade in 1998, his star rose again. But by the time the third installment came around, the franchise was fading.
By the mid-2000s, like with his fellow action stars Stallone, Arnold, Van Damme, and Seagal, the action genre had dried somewhat.
He couldn’t open a movie. And when a star can’t open a movie, the movie offers stop coming. The same thing happened with his action peers.
So he turned to the Direct-to-DVD market.
And then he went to prison. However, since he’s been out, in recent years he’s partnered with Eddie Murphy in two films. DoLemite Is My Name and Coming 2 America.
I believe we’ll see him in some excellent dramatic roles in the near future. And maybe some more action and comedy turns. He’s too good to be pushed aside.
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