Today (Friday), actor Wesley Snipes experienced victory and defeat stemming from his tax-fraud trial in Florida. The jury acquitted him of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges, but convicted him of failing to file tax returns.
Snipes could now be sentenced to as much as three years in prison. He originally faced a possible 16 years.
Snipes and two co-defendants — a former accountant and a tax protest leader — were indicted in 2006. The same jury of tax fraud and conspiracy convicted his co-defendants.
The actor also faced six other charges for failing to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004.
The Internal Revenue Service alleges that Wesley Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile engaged them in a long fight insisting Snipes didn’t owe any taxes.
Snipes’ lawyers say the action star was a victim of bad financial advice, and truly believed he didn’t have to pay the government anything.
