Snipes' team says actor did nothing illegal

By KEVIN GRAHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published January 14, 2008

Wesley Snipes sat at the top of the box office charts for most of the 1990s.

New Jack City. Jungle Fever. White Men Can't Jump. Passenger 57. Blade.

Dubbed one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1990" in John Willis' Screen World, Snipes, 45, ended the decade by getting a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

Today, the celebrity will find himself seated in a federal courtroom in Ocala. Prosecutors plan to spend the next month trying to prove that he worked with two other men to defraud the IRS of $11.4-million in tax refunds.

In a telephone interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Snipes' lawyers say he did nothing illegal, and they're ready to show it. "The truth will surprise and shock the public," says Robert Barnes, a Snipes attorney.

Why did the government charge Snipes?

Federal prosecutors charged the actor with conspiracy to defraud, making a false claim and six counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns. They accuse him of seeking bogus refunds in 1996 and 1997 and of filing no returns between 1999 and 2004.

Prosecutors also plan to present evidence that Snipes participated as an anti-IRS tax protester for several years.


Read The Rest

----