Federal prosecutors want to see the judge who will sentence Wesley Snipes on tax evasion charges next week make an example of the actor by sending him to prison for three years.
In a sentencing memorandum filed Monday, prosecutors asked Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges to sentence Snipes to the maximum possible term under federal sentencing guidelines and to fine Snipes at least $5 million.
An Ocala jury convicted Snipes Feb. 1 of three counts of willfully failing to file tax returns and acquitted him of felony conspiracy and tax fraud charges. The same jury convicted Snipes' codefendants Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile on the felony charges. All three men are scheduled to be sentenced April 24.
In the 37-page memo, U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill asks Hodges to sentence Snipes to a prison term of three years, one for each misdemeanor count. O'Neill argues in the memo that Snipes has waged a nearly 10-year campaign of "tax defiance" against the Internal Revenue Service and concealed millions of dollars in illegal offshore bank accounts. A stiff sentence for Snipes would deter other potential tax evaders, O'Neill wrote.
Ocala,com
