Wesley Snipes Sentenced to Jail Over Tax Fraud

Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in jail on tax charges Thursday.

The action star’s lawyers desperately pushed for probation in lieu of jail time, even going so far as providing three dozen letters from family members and fellow actors Woody Harrelson and Denzel Washington attesting to Snipes’ good character.

Still, Snipes was given the maximum sentence after being convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return in February 2008.

“In my mind these are serious crimes, albeit misdemeanors,” U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said, adding that Snipes exhibited a “history of contempt over a period of time” for U.S. tax laws. Hodges granted prosecutors the three year sentence they requested — one year for each of Snipes’ convictions of willfully failing to file a tax return.

The actor’s co-defendants, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile, face anywhere from five to 10 years behind bars. 

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