Actor Snipes acquitted of tax fraud, guilty of failing to file a return

A federal jury in Florida acquitted actor Wesley Snipes of charges of tax fraud and conspiracy Friday but found the former high-profile star guilty on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file a tax return.

Snipes, who starred in such box office hits as “White Men Can’t Jump,” “New Jack City” and the “Blade” trilogy, faces up to three years in prison. He faced up to 16 years in prison if convicted on all counts, which included six counts of failing to file a tax return.

A spokesman for Snipes refused to comment on the verdict.

Snipes and two-co-defendants were indicted in October 2006. The government alleged that Snipes tried to defraud the IRS by filing false tax returns for 1996 and 1997 that claimed a total of $11.4 million in refunds. The IRS also contended that the actor didn’t file any tax returns for 1999 through 2004, despite earning millions of dollars during that period.

The jury in Ocala, Fla., began deliberations late Tuesday after Snipes’ attorneys rested their case without calling any witnesses. The attorneys, who had earlier promised to bring a parade of Hollywood celebrities to the witness stand, including actors Sylvester Stallone and Goldie Hawn, said they called no witnesses because the government didn’t prove its case during nearly two weeks of testimony.

Snipes’ co-defendants, a longtime Florida tax protester and an accountant hired by Snipes as a consultant, were convicted of tax fraud and conspiracy.

The three men based their defense in part on a section of the U.S. tax code that empowers the federal government to tax the overseas earnings of its citizens. Some tax protesters infer from that language that only foreign earnings are taxable and money earned in the United States is not.

“Nobody likes paying taxes, but paying taxes is the price we pay to live in a civilized society,” Asst. U.S. Atty. M. Scotland Morris said in his closing argument. “And it’s the law. And that’s what this case is about. It’s about three men who felt they were above the law.”

Snipes, once a highly bankable Hollywood star, has been dealing with setbacks in his personal and professional life.

Snipes in recent years had lost his Florida home to foreclosure, was sued for $2 million by his own talent agency and had to fight off a paternity suit filed by a woman claiming she had sex with the actor in a Chicago crack house.

Meanwhile, his acting career has been in decline. Although he still regularly gets work, his roles have been in straight-to-video features “The Detonator” and “Hard Luck.”

martin.zimmerman@latimes.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.