"Blade" of Justice Falls on Snipes for Tax Evasion

FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008
Author: David
Tags: Wesley Snipes

---

He slaughtered vampires with broadswords, he taught Woody Harelson how to alley oop, and I think he may have even done something with Steven Segal (they seem ripe for a buddy picture, no?), but the IRS, completely resisting his Hollywood charms, have sentenced Wesley Snipes to three years in prison for tax evasion, having failed to pay his $2.7 million bill to the government. Harsh!  Why so much time for a misdemeanor?  Prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence because, as the above photo shows, the actor got cocky about beating heavier charges of fraud back in February.

"Snipes' long prison sentence should send a loud and crystal clear message to all tax deifiers that if they engage in similar tax deifier conduct, they face joining him,”

said assistant Attorney General Nathan J. Hochman of the Justice Department's Tax Division.

If Snipes had not pumped his fists, as above, and given the impression that his conviction on lesser charges was in fact some kind of victory, they probably would have given him a slap on the wrist, CNN seemed to imply.  Let that be a lesson to all of us – no more hotdoggin’. 

I’m a little surprised to find that Snipes has $2.7 million dollars to owe – his most recent titles on IMDB have a “V” listed next to them which, I believe, means direct to video (one is titled Hard Luck).  Now I feel a little bad for him.  Snipes had thrown himself on the mercy of the court during his sentencing hearing (a very un-Snipes thing to do, considering he beat down Jason Straitham in the video masterpiece Chaos), and now he’s looking at hard time.  Big time actors like Denzel Washington even wrote letters to the court on his behalf, but none of it seemed to sway the judge. 

I’m starting an etsy.com store with “Free Wesley Snipes” t-shirts today, as soon as I get my old silk-screener up and working.