Snipes gets 3 years, apologizes for `costly mistakes' |
| Published: April 25, 2008, 12:17 pm |
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After haggling with revenue agents, criminal investigators and eventually U.S. prosecutors for almost a decade, Wesley Snipes finally caught them by surprise.Hours before he was to be sentenced Thursday for failing to file income taxes he insisted he never had to pay, the action star cut the federal government three checks for $5 million, delivered in court.So taken aback were prosecutors that they first declined the cash. But by the end of the day, the government took the money and more - a maximum three-year sentence for its highest-profile criminal tax target in decades."The sentencing court sends the right message to the American taxpayer - you've got to pay your taxes," U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill told reporters outside the usually quiet central Florida courthouse. "Rich, poor, it doesn't matter. We all pay our taxes."Though Snipes was convicted of three counts of willfully failing to file returns, his trial was held by some as proof of victory for the tax protest movement. [ Full article ] |
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