Snipes Surrenders to Feds, Pleads Not Guilty

Fri., Dec. 8, 2006 11:04 AM PST by Marcus Errico

Wesley Snipes managed to elude the feds on screen in U.S. Marshals. On Friday, the feds got a measure of offscreen revenge.

The action hero ended a two-month stint as a fugitive Friday, when he surrendered to government officials in Orlando.

Snipes, 44, was indicted in October on a litany of tax-dodging charges, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The lawyer for Snipes and the government were working on a deal for him to turn himself in, a federal prosecutor confirmed to E! Online last month, while the actor worked the zombie western Gallowwalker in Namibia. Production on the film began before the grand jury returned the indictment.

Snipes flew into his hometown of Orlando on a private jet and voluntarily turned himself in, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa. Around 9:30 a.m. local time, the actor, sporting a shaved head, salt-and-pepper beard and a dark suit, was escorted by U.S. marshals and a prosecutor into federal court in Ocala for arraignment.

Snipes pleaded not guilty to all charges. Magistrate Gary Jones released the actor on $1 million bond and allowed him to return to Africa to finish Gallowwalker. Snipes was ordered back in court for another hearing on Jan. 10.

"I look forward to clearing my name and resolving this issue post haste," Snipes told reporters afterward.

His lawyer, Billy Martin, added: "We believe the evidence in the case will show he has been the victim of unscrupulous tax advice. And this trial will help vindicate him."

The Blade star is accused of attempting to cheat the Internal Revenue Service out of $12 million in fraudulent refunds from 1996 to 1997. Additionally, the IRS says Snipes did not file any returns from 1999 to 2004. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 16 years in federal lockup.

Snipes was indicted Oct. 17, along with alleged coconspirators Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile, two men who ran American Rights Litigators, a Florida accounting firm purportedly specializing in circumventing the IRS.

In a rambling email to the Orlando Sentinel last month, Snipes portrayed himself as a wronged man.

"I know this has more to do with a few individuals with access to power, making moves (trying to move up!) and less with some alleged crime against the whole population of the United States of America. This reminds me of rape cases where the 'victim' is flipped, turned or converted into the role of victimizer, the 'architect conspirator,' " Snipes wrote.

"It appears I'm to be the scapegoat, because there's more public interest in 'celebrities gone bad' than 'rich people being taken advantage of.' "

According to a publicist for Sheer Film, the company producing Gallowwalker, Snipes will fly back to Namibia later Friday. Filmmakers expect shooting to wrap in the next week and the movie to be in theaters in fall 2007. it's one of three films Snipes has in the pipeline, according to IMDb.com.