Wesley Snipes has been cleared of federal tax-fraud

Wesley Snipes has been cleared of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges on Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return.
From one perspective, it's a huge victory for Snipes as he has just reduced his potential jail time from 16 years to three, and even then, he is unlikely to do any time at all. But he still has some problems. First, the bizarre arguments that he put up - that he was a victim of crooked advisers, that the Internal Revenue Service had no legal authority because it's not a proper government entity and that he himself was a "nonresident alien" and therefore not subject to tax laws - have not exactly done his reputation the world of good.
As Columbia law professor Michael Dorf points out in his blog, the whole case has left Snipes with enormous problems starting with the $14 million in back taxes, plus interest charges and penalties on unpaid taxes. "As in all such instances, we cannot know the precise outcome without further information; but it at least seems plausible that Snipes will be required to pay another $10 million or more,'' Dorf writes. "His attorneys' fees surely added up to millions of dollars as well. Finally, he is now a convicted criminal, which is not only a blot on his record but can cause problems in a variety of circumstances (such as foreign travel, which is particularly important to a movie actor). In short, even if Snipes manages to avoid jail time (which I hope he won't), the price he will pay is steep. In an attempt to evade $14 million in taxes, Snipes must now pay that amount in full plus interest plus penalties probably exceeding $10 million, plus legal fees, all while now carrying a criminal record. Add in the years of uncertainty that this prosecution caused Snipes, as well as the personal toll of a trial carrying the possibility of 16 years in prison, and this does not look like an advertisement for getting into the tax denial game."
Still as Professor Ellen S Podgor says in the White Collar Crime Prof blog, the acquittal must be making the Government wonder whether it was worth the time, cost and effort and whether it would have been better to proceed with civil penalties.
Nevertheless, it's not exactly a great result for the Internal Revenue Service, although it can still sue him in civil court for back taxes for the years in which he didn't file returns, from 1999 through at least 2004. The government says Snipes earned almost $38 million during that time.