A federal judge in Florida today sentenced actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison for failing to file tax returns.
A jury found Snipes guilty earlier this year of three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file tax returns, but acquitted him of tax fraud and other charges. Two co-defendants, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile, were convicted on felony charges.
Judge Hodges sentenced Kahn to 10 years and Rosile to four and a half years.
Mr. Snipes was a member of American Rights Litigators, an organization founded by Kahn. Prosecutors have described that organization and its successor company, Guiding Light of God Ministries, as illegal tax-evasion schemes.
Before he was sentenced, Snipes offered the court checks totaling $5 million. The judge and the prosecutors declined to accept them, but an Internal Revenue Service employee eventually accepted them.
