Celebrities Convicted Of Tax Evasion...
- Ashley Thomas
- May 1, 2018
- 3 min read
From the little guys to the big time celebrities... everybody has to pay their taxes! I named some celebrities below who were convicted of tax evasion. Some you may know and others you will discover.
Joe Francis
The “Girls Gone Wild” founder was convicted of tax evasion in 2009. Joe Francis pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns — where he withheld $500,000 in interest income — and for giving jail workers up to $5,000 in goods in exchange for food.
Francis was ordered to pay nearly $250,000 in restitution to the IRS. He was sentenced to 301 days already served and one year of probation.
Lauryn Hill
In 2013, Lauryn Hill spent three months in prison for tax evasion after failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes over a decade. The singer pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2012, admitting to not paying taxes on $1.8 million in earnings from 2005 to 2007. Her three month sentence also included unpaid state and federal taxes from 2008 and 2009, which brought her total tax debt to approximately $2.3 million.
The former member of the band The Fugees told the judge she had intended to pay her tax bill eventually, but didn’t have the money after leaving the music business. Hill was ultimately released from prison several days early and given one year of probation, which included three months of home confinement. But Hill’s tax troubles weren’t yet behind her, as nearly six months later she was hit with seven tax liens from 2005 to 2011, totaling nearly $867,000.
Fat Joe
In August 2013, Joseph Cartagena, better known as the rapper Fat Joe, turned himself in to serve a four month sentence for tax evasion. Fat Joe had pleaded guilty in December 2012 for skimping out on taxes in 2007 and 2008, resulting in over a $1 million tax bill. The rapper was released early on Thanksgiving Day but was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and undergo one year of supervision.
Ja Rule
In March 2011, rapper Ja Rule — whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins — pleaded guilty to failing to file tax returns and agreed to pay more than $1.1 million in back taxes. In total, Ja Rule pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to file a tax return, from 2004 to 2008, despite the fact that he was earning an income during this time period.
The rapper was sentenced to 28 months in jail for attempted illegal gun possession and tax evasion. Ja Rule began his prison sentence in June 2011 and was released early in May 2013. He spent the final two months of his sentence in home confinement.
Wesley Snipes
In 2008, Wesley Snipes was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns from 1999 to 2001. The actor kept a total of $7 million in taxes from the federal government during this time period.
After losing an appeal for a retrial in 2010, he was sentenced to three years in a Pennsylvania prison for white-collar offenders. Snipes was released from prison on April 2, 2013 and finished the final three and a half months of his sentence in home confinement.
Darryl Strawberry
In 1994, Darryl Strawberry and his agent were indicted on federal tax evasion charges, claiming the troubled baseball star failed to report more than $500,000 in earned income from 1986 to 1990. The pair pleaded innocent to the charges, but in 1995, Strawberry was sentenced to six months of house arrest and ordered to pay $350,000 in back taxes.
Because Strawberry still owed back taxes for 1989, 1990, 2003 and 2004, the IRS seized his retirement annuity from the New York Mets in 2014. It was auctioned off for $1.3 million in 2015.
Martha Stewart
She may be a home and garden guru, but she's also a convicted tax evader. Before doing jail time for insider trading, Stewart was forced to pay $220,000 in back taxes and penalties to the State of New York, learning the hard way that East Hampton mansions also generate taxes. Her claim that she hardly spent time there didn't reduce her burden, or appease the state of New York.
For more information on celebrities that were convicted of tax evasion click these links: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/10-celebrities-convicted-of-tax-evasion
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