OCALA - Did the action-movie star duck and roll under the tax system, or was he simply asking the Internal Revenue Service for help in filing his returns?
On Monday morning, federal prosecutors, defense attorneys and a judge will sift through dozens of prospective jurors from four Central Florida counties with the goal of seating a 12-member jury. The jury will take up to four weeks to determine whether actor Wesley Snipes is guilty of conspiracy and presenting false claims for millions of dollars in tax refunds. Snipes also is charged with failing to file tax returns for six years.
If convicted, he faces up to 16 years in prison.
An October 2006 federal indictment states that Snipes, along with two men who ran a tax-fraud scheme, filed for $11.4 million in false tax returns. Snipes and his co-conspirators argued that the U.S. government can only tax residents on income generated in other countries, the indictment states. That claim has been proved false by several courts, according to the indictment.
Snipes at one point called his usual tax preparers and told them to file the refund requests as he directed, the indictment states. The tax accountants told him the filing would be improper, prosecutors allege.
The two men charged with Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosalie, ran an organization out of Lake County that purported to be an aggressive accounting firm, according to the indictment. It morphed into a new group, Guiding Light of God Ministries, a supposed nonprofit Christian organization. Both organizations, the indictment states, "sold fraudulent tax schemes."
Snipes' lead attorney, Robert G. Bernhoft, said the issue in court will not be about various tax theories. Snipes, Bernhoft said, did not try to defraud the government. He simply asked the IRS whether this innovative way to file returns was allowed.
"He did what every other American is entitled to," Bernhoft said. "He asked the IRS for information. Asking questions is not a crime, even if the IRS would like it to be."
Bernhoft said the IRS is holding $110 million in unclaimed tax refunds. If no one is allowed to ask about the money, the IRS will not have to pay it back, he said.
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