Tax Problems for Rapper Doug E. Fresh

Rapper/record producer/beat-boxer Doug E. Fresh appears to be in trouble with the IRS.  Fresh owes more than $2.2 million in back taxes, and the IRS has filed a lien against him in New York.  It's not the first time Fresh has had problems with the IRS; the IRS came after him in 2008 for $367,000 in back taxes.

Read more here and here.

Snipes Reports to Prison

Wesley Snipes reported to a federal prison in Pennsylvania today to begin serving his 3-year prison sentence on tax-evasion charges.  Snipes was convicted in 2008 of failing to file tax returns and pay income tax on more than $37 million of income between 1999-2004.  He lost an appeal in July and another appeal in November.  Click here to read more about Snipes reporting to prison. 

Prior Dinesen Tax Times coverage can be found here, here and here.

Snipes Loses Appeal, Told to Report to Prison

Wesley Snipes has lost his request for a new trial on charges of tax fraud (click here to read the story from earlier this week on The Dinesen Tax Times).  A district court judge in Florida today denied that request and ordered Snipes to report to prison to start serving a 3-year prison sentence.  That sentence was first handed down in 2008; Snipes lost an appeal in July of this year.  Click here for the story from July.

Wesley Snipes Appeals Tax Evasion Conviction

Lawyers for actor Wesley Snipes filed an appeal on Monday of Snipes' conviction on tax evasion charges.  As reported earlier this year on the Dinesen Tax Times, Snipes was convicted of failing to file tax returns and pay income tax on more than $37 million of income between 1999-2004.  He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008, and lost an appeal in July.

This time around, Snipes' lawyers are arguing that Snipes deserves a new trial because of an allegedly tainted jury.  One of Snipes' attorneys says he (the attorney) received e-mails from two jurors saying that three other jurors had made up their minds about Snipes being guilty before the trial started.

Snipes' attorneys are also arguing that Kenneth Starr, a financial advisor to Snipes and a key government witness against Snipes, was a "tainted witness" because Starr has since pleaded guilty to charges of fraud.

You can read more about the appeal here and here.

Iowan Convicted of Tax Evasion

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld the conviction of a man from Dallas County, Iowa, on tax-evasion charges.  Richard Rosenquist faces a 51-month prison sentence.  The indictment against Rosenquist accused him of concealing assets from the IRS, filing false tax returns for several years, and faling to file a tax retrn for 2003.