Wesley Snipes and Paying Taxes
Right up I-75 in Ocala, there is a whole lot of dram surrounding a very popular American actor. Wesley Snipes calls Ocala, Florida home and now the actor will stand trial in Ocala in a Federal Courtroom to determine whether he is guilty of conspiracy and presenting false claims for millions of dollars in tax refunds. He is charged with failing to file tax returns for six years.
Snipes and his co-conspirators argue that the U.S. government can only tax residents on income generated in other countries, a claim that has been proven false by several courts.
The two men charged with Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosalie, ran an organization out of Lake County that billed itself as an aggressive accounting firm. It eventually turned into the Guiding Light of God Ministries, a nonprofit Christian organization. The indictment in the case says both organizations sold fraudulent tax schemes.
Come Monday, a jury will be selected from four Central Florida counties with the goal of seating a 12-member jury. Snipes’ attorneys have been trying to move the trial to a larger venues like as Orlando or New York, claiming that Ocala is too racist to garner a fair trial.
While Ocala is indeed more rural than many other parts of Florida, most residents disagree that this is the case.
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