Wesley Snipes is Going to Prison, This is His Obligatory Pre-Prison Denial of Guilt

In February of 2008, a jury in Florida convicted Wesley Snipes of three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file federal tax returns in 1999, 2000 and 2001. (According to prosecutors, the 48-year-old actor failed to file any tax returns for at least a decade, and owed $2.7 million in taxes on $13.8 million in income from 1999 to 2001 alone.) The jury acquitted him of five other charges, including felony tax fraud and conspiracy. In April of 2008, the judge imposed the maximum possible sentence, three years in prison. He's now been ordered to surrender to a federal prison in Pennsylvania by noon tomorrow, but before he does, he (accompanied by his attorney Dan Meachum and Judge Joe Brown!) gave an exclusive interview to Larry King Live in which Wesley say he was wrongfully persecuted, lays blame on others for his problem and is hopeful that the judge will grant him a reprieve that will keep him out of prison. That's very unlikely.

Wesley, a dues-paying member of a tax-protest group that challenges the government's right to collect taxes, described himself at his 2008 sentencing as a naive truth-seeker, but in his interview with Larry he sings a different tune. Throughout the interview, Larry kept Wesley on his toes, like in this exchange:

Wesley: One of the things I want to say right off the bat is that there have been some egregious and very malicious efforts to misreport the facts of this case. I just want to clear the air and I want to clear -- set the record straight for the sake of my family, the sake of my wife, the sake of the people who depend on me and trust me and have believed in me for so many years, the sake of the communities that I contribute to and the efforts and good will that I've been trying to put forth around the world. Larry --

Larry: What are the mistakes?

Wesley: Well, for a start, Larry, I was never charged with tax evasion. I have never been a pro -- tax protester. I never took a position of being a tax protester. And the press has continued to report that that's exactly what I was doing. They've also reported that I was charged with tax evasion. These things are completely false, Larry.

Larry: What were you convicted of?

Wesley: I was convicted of three misdemeanors of willful failure to file a form.

Larry: How is that different from evasion?

Zing!

Turns out "tax avoiding" is failure to file a tax return -- or ask for an extension -- before the April 15 deadline.

Then this:

Larry: Wesley, as a famous actor, you must have accountants. And accountants file these reports automatically every year. So how did you miss filing for three years in a row? How did that happen?

Wesley: This is one of the things that's also been misreported, Larry. It's been presented and it's been put in a context and framed as though I was a co-conspirator, that at one point I was the architect of a scheme that was promoted by an organization who were -- who were characterized as tax protesters. The press has not reported the fact that continually I have been a client represented by people whom I trusted. People whom I thought had the knowledge and expertise in the areas of finance and tax law that would protect my interest. This has been part of the misconception that has been perpetuated throughout the media and around the world.

Larry: So these people failed to do that? They failed to file on your behalf?

Wesley: I would say that I relied on the advice of those who I considered professionals. And if you look at some of the people who also relied on the professionals that I had representing me, they also have been subject to fraud and loss and suffered as a result of the misappropriation of funds as a result of the breach of the fiduciary responsibility that these professionals --

Larry: I believe someone is in jail because of that, right?

Wesley: Well, yes. Ken Starr, who was brought in as one of the star witnesses, no pun intended, for witnesses for the prosecution against me, actually used to be my financial adviser back in the '90s.

Larry: But you did know, Wesley, that's you have to every year sign a tax form. The accountant can't sign it for you. You know that you have to sign that, right? You did know that?

Meachum: No, Larry, what in fact happened is that Mr. Snipes, when he left Mr. Starr after he found out that Mr. Starr had forged his signature on some documents and was represented by a new organization that also had 4,000 clients of which some were IRS employees, doctors, lawyers, and dentists, they were representing Mr. Snipes as both accountants and lawyers and actually had various communications back and forth between the IRS and themselves on what is the categorization by which Mr. Snipes should file his returns.

Larry also had some questions for Judge Joe Brown, who was called as a character witness in Wesley's trial.

Judge Joe Brown: Well, first off, I am somewhat appalled at what I think is selective prosecution. Let's get to some of the facts nobody has brought out here. Over the last decade, it seems like Mr. Snipes has paid a bit over 30 million dollars in income tax. When you are talking about failure to file the tax return versus evasion, one simply not filing the return even though your taxes may have actually been paid -- failing to pay taxes is not paying the taxes --

Larry: He still has to file.

JJB: Yes, he still has to file but he may have paid. So what you usually get as a practical matter, sir, is that people on the low end who have W-2 deductions from their paychecks and the money sent in, they don't file. They don't get the refund. I guess the government gets to keep their money longer.

Larry: What's your point here.

JJB: The point is here, when you get somebody on his end, he makes a lot of money. And he's got people filing returns, and there are a lot of papers you get. You sign stuff you may not be aware of the fact that that particular 1040 has not been filed on your behalf, but you paid your taxes. He's paid 30 million, at least, in taxes over the last decade.

Larry: Why did this judge give him three years?

JJB: I don't understand that. We have a disparate sentencing here. He walked in to a courtroom on the day of his sentencing with a certified bank check for 6.5 million dollars that he attempted to present to the U.S. attorneys in the case. They refused to accept it. The judge was a little set out about that.

As for why he's never spoken publicly about the case before, Wesley says he "was under the belief that the system would work and would treat me fairly. I had faith in the system. I had faith in the concept and the theory that all Americans are endowed with the right to a fair trial and I would be fairly judged and fairly tried." While he's in prison, he says he'll continue to "use [his] talents and [his] skills to elevate humanity through [his art."


Update, Dec. 9: He's in prison. The 48-year-old began serving his time at the Federal Correctional Institution McKean, a minimum-security camp that doesn't have fences around its perimeter in Lewis Run, Penn. just before noon this morning.