It looks like the reports of the full demise of the career of Wesley Snipes due to his tax problems have been greatly exaggerated. Well, maybe not, but it looks like the Blade star was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and work out a deal with the feds. He turns himself in, gets no jail time and is still free to travel. It must be nice to be rich and famous.
The IMDB gives us this:
Wesley Snipes has reached a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service in the US regarding his tax fraud charges. The agreement will likely see Snipes surrender to federal authorities when he next returns to America. In return for agreeing to a payment plan, Snipes will not be jailed and will be allowed both to continue working and to travel abroad. According to a October 17 indictment, Snipes tried to unsuccessfully claim nearly $12 million in false refunds for taxes he paid in 1996 and 1997. The Blade star had his taxes prepared by accountants with a history of filing false returns to reap payments for their clients. Snipes is currently in Namibia shooting the horror film Gallowwalker.
Look, I’ll NERVER say Wesley Snipes is a great actor (because he’s not), but he’s certainly serviceable enough, and he carries with him his own brand of charisma that for some reason I enjoy seeing on screen (within reason). The Blade franchise is a great example of that. The dude has been in some stinker films, but at the same time he also manages to give us some pretty interesting characters along the way, so go figure.
As a side note, I’m looking forward to Daywalker… err… ummm… I mean “Gallowwalker”.
