Wesley Snipes' sentencing date set

A federal judge in Ocala has scheduled April 24 as the sentencing date for actor Wesley Snipes, who faces a maximum of three years in prison after a jury convicted him Feb. 1 on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file his tax returns.

Snipes, 45, was acquitted on the most serious charges, which included one felony count of conspiracy and one felony count of filing a false claim with the Internal Revenue Service. Each charge carried a maximum of five years in prison.

Snipes also was acquitted on three misdemeanor charges of willful failure to file tax returns.

Co-defendants Eddie Ray Kahn, a Lake County resident whom Snipes hired as a tax adviser, and Douglas Rosile, a de-licensed accountant from Venice who worked for Kahn and prepared Snipes' amended tax return, were each found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and filing a false claim.

Prosecutors spent nearly two weeks at trial trying to prove that Snipes, Kahn and Rosile conspired to defraud the IRS of about $11.4-million in refunds on taxes that Snipes paid in 1996 and 1997. An October 2006 federal indictment also charged the Orlando-born actor with failing to file taxes from 1999 to 2004.

If a jury had convicted Snipes on all the charges against him, he would have faced a maximum of 16 years in prison. Prosecutors said Snipes earned $38-million during the years he did not file any returns.

- Kevin Graham, Times staff writer