This Thanksgiving, we can all be thankful that we’re not Wesley Snipes, at least not the Wesley Snipes accused of breaking various federal tax laws.
Despite some reports that the movie star had amicably settled his tax evasion charges (wishful thinking on his agent’s part, perhaps), Snipes is still in deep tax doo-doo.
In case you forgot, Uncle Sam alleges, in part, that Snipes owes $12 million in back taxes. If convicted of all the federal charges, he could serve up to 16 years in prison. You can read more in my initial post about the case.
Well, Wesley has finally decided to talk turkey (at least as he sees it) about the situation. Not surprisingly, he’s not taking the whole thing very well.
He sent Scott Maxwell, author of the "Taking Names" column for the Orlando Sentinel, a series of e-mails elaborating on the injustice of the tax charges.
Basically, Snipes says he’s being "scapegoated" by the U.S. government "because there’s more public interest in ‘celebrities gone bad’ than ‘rich people being taken advantage of.’"
The actor, best known for his roles in the "Blade" trilogy, "New Jack City" and "White Men Can’t Jump," says that he was shocked by the charges: "We thought all issues had been resolved. Guess not, huh?"
Snipes also questions why it’s taken almost a decade since the alleged crimes for the charges to be filed, and speculates that it "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."
You can read Maxwell’s column on the Snipes’ e-mails, as well as the actor’s full and unedited electronic messages.
E! Online also has a report on the Snipes e-mail rebuttal. And TaxProf has done a good job of tracking the blow-by-blow to date of the case (links at the end of this item).
Since we’re such entertainment info crazed Americans, as well as citizens clamoring for any and all tax-related news, I’m sure we’ll all be closely following Snipes’ story to see whether the IRS does indeed end up cooking his goose.
Culinary note: If you’d like to try a different bird entree for the holiday meal you’ll be cooking in a few weeks, click on the photo above for a recipe.
