Actor Snipes found guilty of lesser charges in tax fraud case

Last Updated: Saturday, February 2, 2008 | 10:13 AM ET

CBC News

A jury in Ocala, Fla., found actor Wesley Snipes not guilty of tax-fraud and conspiracy charges on Friday, but convicted him of three counts of failing to file a tax return.

The star of Blade and White Men Can't Jump was indicted in 2006 after failing to file several tax returns between 1999 and 2004.

Actor Wesley Snipes told U.S. tax authorities he didn't believe he had an obligation to pay taxes.
(Stuart Ramson/Associated Press)

Snipes had told the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that he did not believe he had an obligation to pay taxes.

But the jury seems to have accepted the argument by his lawyers that he was the victim of crooked advisers and promoters of the tax-protest movement.

Those advisers include Eddie Ray Kahn, the founder of a Florida-based tax-protest group that argues the IRS has no legal authority because it's not a proper government entity, and Douglas P. Rosile, an accountant who filed Snipes's tax return.

Both were convicted Friday of tax fraud and conspiracy by the same jury that convicted Snipes.

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