Wesley Snipes, whose flash-and-dash acting style carried him from the streets of the South Bronx to movie stardom, has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and tax fraud, federal officials announced Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Snipes fraudulently claimed refunds totaling nearly $12 million in 1996 and 1997 on income taxes already paid. The star of the “Blade” trilogy and other movies, including “Jungle Fever” and “White Men Can’t Jump,” also was charged with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004.
The whereabouts of Snipes, 44, could not be determined, said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Middle District of Florida.
“We made an attempt to contact him through his attorneys and now with the news conference,” Cole said in a telephone interview. “Maybe he’ll find out from the media and turn himself in.”
From his success in the 1986 football film “Wildcats” to a drug lord in “New Jack City” to superhero in the “Blade” movies, Snipes has been a fixture on the screen.
But his off-screen difficulties have mounted in recent years. His Florida mansion was in foreclosure, his former agency sued to collect an overdue debt, and an admitted ex-crack addict took him to court in a paternity case that the star eventually won after reams of bad publicity.
The indictment, handed up last week, accuses Snipes, formerly of Windermere, Fla.; Eddie Kahn of Sorrento, Fla.; and Douglas Rosile of Venice, Fla., with conspiracy to defraud the IRS and presenting a fraudulent claim to the IRS.
The indictment said Kahn was the founder and leader of American Rights Litigators and its successor, Guiding Light of God Ministries. The businesses sold fraudulent tax schemes, authorities said.
Rosile was identified as a former accountant who continued to work after his CPA licenses were revoked in Ohio and Florida. He allegedly prepared fraudulent tax returns for American Rights Litigators, which charged its members a fee, half of which it allegedly was paid to Rosile.
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Snipes, Kahn and Rosile are accused of making it appear that Snipes had no liability for federal income taxes.
The defendants filed two amended federal income tax returns for Snipes, claiming almost $12 million in refunds from 1996 and 1997 income taxes.
Authorities contacted Snipes’ lawyers on Friday and asked that the actor surrender for arraignment Tuesday. The lawyers said they no longer represented Snipes, Cole said.
Rosile surrendered Tuesday. Kahn was believed to be in Panama.