How much will Snipes pay back before sentencing?

[AFTP]

They wont take gold or silver as a tax payment I heard.

[grixit]

I voted less than half but still claim he owes nothing. I think he's still drinking the koolaide and will follow the debt eliminator script that says making a (not so) good faith payment of any amount means the process has to start over, giving him time to file more bogus papers.

[Demosthenes]

February 8, 2008

OCALA - Wesley Snipes, the Orlando-born actor who was acquitted Feb. 1 of the most serious tax-related charges against him, will be sentenced on April 24 on three counts of failing to file a tax return. He could face up to a year in prison on each.

A federal jury inOcala deliberated three days before deciding Snipes was not guilty of conspiracy, fraud and three other counts of not filing a return. If he had been convicted of all charges, he could have faced 16 years in prison.

Defense lawyer Robert Barnes said probation is the normal sentence in cases such as these.

Snipes' co-defendants, tax preparer Douglas Rosile, 59, of Venice, and Eddie Ray Kahn, 64, who founded and led American Rights Litigators and the Guiding Light of God Ministries, tax-protest organizations with offices in Lake County, will be sentenced the same day.

Has anyone ever heard of probation being the "normal sentence" when sentencing guidelines come in at a bare bones minimum of 51 months (reduced to 36 to keep within the statutory maximum)?

[wserra]

Has anyone ever heard of probation being the "normal sentence" when sentencing guidelines come in at a bare bones minimum of 51 months (reduced to 36 to keep within the statutory maximum)?

I take it, Demo, that your question is rhetorical. That's absurd.

[Demosthenes]

Actually, not rhetorical. The only cases I generally watch are pro se tax deniers. What happens to them may not be the norm for what happens to people who hire lawyers.

Larken got 15 months prison time for five misdemeanor counts involving a tiny amount of tax, while Jerome Schneider got only six months after pleading guilty to a felony conspiracy charge for a scam involving millions in losses to the government. Schneider had been indicted on 23 felony counts.

Tain't no justice in our justice system.

[Investor]

Actually, not rhetorical. The only cases I generally watch are pro se tax deniers. What happens to them may not be the norm for what happens to people who hire lawyers.

Larken got 15 months prison time for five misdemeanor counts involving a tiny amount of tax, while Jerome Schneider got only six months after pleading guilty to a felony conspiracy charge for a scam involving millions in losses to the government. Schneider had been indicted on 23 felony counts.

Tain't no justice in our justice system.

Jerome Schneider - now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. I own two of his books. I would never purchase such garbage knowingly, but when I was a fairly young CPA, I had a "big shooter" client who was in the business of "international funds". I was not doing tax work for the guy, just some accounting - and when I say "I had a client", I mean that I worked for a firm who had him for a client. The guy told me how great these books were and that I should read them to get a better idea of international banking. I bought the books (I'm still pissed about paying for that) and read on. That's when it dawned on me that this client was full of sh!t. Last I heard, he was being sued by just about every lawyer in the City of Chicago on behalf of someone, and was under investigation for tax fraud. That was while I was leaving the firm - I have no idea what ever happened to this guy.

My favorite story about that guy - when the first lawsuit hit, the guy told me he wasn't worried, he didn't own anything. I sat there in this guy's swanky high-rise office, overlooking Lake Michigan, and asked how that could possibly be. He said, "it just is". The wheels in my head turned a little and I asked if his money was all off-shore. His response was priceless:

"Investor," he said [using my real first name], "have you ever been deposed?"

I asked no more questions.