Scammer
Banned
U.S. actor Wesley Snipes poses during the photo call for the film Brooklyn's Finest at the 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Italy, on Sept. 8, 2009.
Blade star Wesley Snipes has been taken into custody and will begin his three-year prison sentence for tax crimes, TMZ is reporting.
A federal judge in Ocala, Fla., ordered the actor to surrender to authorities early Friday. He had been out on bail while awaiting an appeal of his conviction.
Snipe's attorneys had asked for a review of the actor's federal sentence and a new trial on charges of wilful failure to file his income tax returns. They argued jury members had a preconceived opinion of Snipe's guilt before they served on the jury.
U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges turned them down in a 16-page decision.
"The defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence.... The time has come for the judgment to be enforced," he said.
Snipes will be sent to federal prison, likely within 500 miles of his Florida home.
Snipes had earned more than $38 million US from 1999 to 2006 but had filed no tax returns, nor paid any taxes.
He had been advised by Kenneth Starr, a celebrity accountant who is under investigation for allegedly cheating wealthy and elderly clients out of tens of millions of dollars.
The 48-year-old Snipes starred as Blade, a vampire who protects mortals, in the film trilogy and also appeared in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever and more recently, Brooklyn's Finest.
