Well, fans of actor Wesley Snipes were a little stunned this week when charges of income tax evasion brought by the IRS - not only "stuck" - but appear to be bundling the action star off to the big house for three years!
Uncle Sam doesn't fool around when it comes to hanky-panky with tax dollar revenues!
No surprise, though.
Decades ago, everyone thought Al Capone was pretty much "untouchable" - a flim flam man - a teflon Don. In the final crunch, it was the undeclared ill-gotten gains - not the racketeering or the rum-running or illicit prostitution or slave trade - that done him in.
Even Leona Helmsley's mega millions couldn't save her from the slammer - and subsequently - daily stints in the head scrubbing out latrines and carting out the trash for allegedly writing off expenses which were disallowed.
Most are shocked by the severity of the Snipes sentence.
Mr. Swipes had no previous record (and no trouble with the Law previously) so - by most accounts - the star of a couple of blockbuster Hollywood films should have been given probation. After all, the felony charges were dropped, and lowly misdemeanours don't generally warrant such a severe slap on the wrist.
Was the bench-warmer who laid down the sentence a hangin' Judge?
Or, was Mr. Swipes another victim of a judicial system bent on sending a message to the American people: Don't cheat on your taxes?
On the other side of the coin, the prosecution and the government argued that Mr. Swipes was not just an "innocent" who inadvertently failed to report his earnings correctly or pay appropriate tax based on his earnings.
The lawyers who prosecuted the case stridently put forth the proposition that Swipes willingly got involved with a tax-deferral scheme which he knew was not legal or acceptable in the eyes of the IRS or the U.S. Tax Court.
In fact - Attorney General Nathan J. Hochman of the Justice Department - was quite emphatic in his statements to the press that Swipes was:
"A disciple of a tax defiance movement who understood his actions were illegal."
To add credibility to the Justice Department's argument, Hochman noted that the incidents of tax evasion did not occur in just one calendar year, but over several. And, that the failure to report earnings was not an "accident' - in the final analysis - in view of the documented evidence.
Swipes was not a victim of "jackals" who took advantage of his lack of knowledge about the intricacies of tax laws, he stressed to the swarming media who hovered in a fever frenzy outside the court environs this past week.
Although Swipes stated in a prepared release prior to sentencing that he was - idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, and a spiritually motivated artist unschooled in the science of law and finance - the comments fell on deaf ears.
In response to the criticism that the sentence was too harsh, Judge Hodges (who presided over the case) disagreed and noted for the record:
"He exhibited a history of contempt over a period of time for U.S. Tax laws."
"In my mind these are serious crimes," he concluded, as he passed the sentence.
After hearing the verdict, Swipes had no reaction.
Maybe, he saw it coming?
The crux of the case was a charge by the IRS that Snipes tried to defraud the IRS by by virtue of his deceitful efforts to collect 11.4 million in fraudulent income tax refunds. In addition, it was alleged (and proven) that he failed to file returns from 1999 through 2004, despite the fact he generated millions of dollars through career pursuits and investments during that time frame.
When Uncle Sam wants you - he gets 'ya - eh?
