Snipes suffers legal setback

three-year prison sentence for failing to file income tax returns, suffered a legal setback this week when the US Supreme Court refused to review his case.
Snipes (48), the star of the “Blade” action movies, was convicted in 2008 in a Florida court for willful failure to file federal tax returns from 1999 through 2001.
Snipes, who has served nearly one year of his three-year term, was accused of not filing personal income tax returns and not paying any taxes from 1999 through 2004 despite earning more than US$37 million as an actor and producer.
Attorneys for Snipes said the case was improperly brought in Florida and should have been moved to New York, but the trial judge and a US appeals court rejected those arguments.
Defence attorneys said that, during the earlier tax years in question, Snipes lived with his family in New York City and then moved to a home in the northern New Jersey suburbs. He also had a residence near Los Angeles.
US Justice Department prosecutors said Florida was the proper venue for the case.
They presented evidence at trial that Snipes was born in Florida, had a home in Windermere, Florida, since 1992, had a Florida driver’s licence and listed Windermere as his residence in contracts for the “Blade” movies.
In the Supreme Court appeal, attorneys for Snipes said the trial judge should have held a hearing on the evidence about venue before submitting the issue to the jury.
The high court rejected the appeal without any comment, refusing to hear the case. – Reuters.