Snipes May Do Time for Tax Crime

Prosecutors recommend actor serve maximum three-year prison sentence and pay $5 million fine in tax case

Tax day just got a little more taxing for Wesley Snipes.

U.S. prosecutors have recommended that the IRS-dodging Blade star serve the maximum sentence of three years in federal prison and pay a $5 million fine for his convictions in February for willful failure to file returns.

The punishment recommendation, filed Monday but—fittingly—made public Tuesday, were submitted in U.S. District Court Ocala Division by Florida U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill, who said Snipes deserved the harshest sentence due to years of "brazen defiance" and "insidious concealment."

"This case cries out for the statutory maximum term of imprisonment, as well as a substantial fine, because of the seriousness of defendant Snipes' crimes and because of the singular opportunity this case presents to deter tax crime nationwide," O'Neill wrote.

The prosecutor said that by making an example of the 1040-averse star other would-be tax scofflaws might reconsider.

"There is, unfortunately, a profound need to discourage others from emulating Snipes' criminal tactics against the IRS," O'Neill wrote, adding that the maximum sentence would provide serious "deterrence value."

Though the prosecutors have recommended the maximum sentence, Snipes won't be formally sentenced until April 24.

In February, the actor was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return, but was acquitted on the much more serious charges of federal tax fraud and conspiracy.

Among other creative loopholes, the IRS claimed Snipes attempted to receive a bogus $12 million refund, tried to pay off a tax debt with nonlegal tender and flat out failed to pay taxes on more than $58 million in income between 1999 and 2004.