Method Man faces 5 years for tax evasion

You know I almost feel bad for Method Man (Clifford Smith). He has been arrested for not paying taxes. To be exact, he didn't pay taxes from 2004 - 2007.

Now if I were around Method Man I would remind him of one case - Wesley Snipes. For those that do not recall I followed that case from beginning to end. The beginning was very public. With accusations of avoiding authorities and speculation on whether Snipes was a criminal mastermind of a plot to not pay taxes for a group of people.

The truth was far less sensational than what the major media made it out to be. Snipes was evading nothing, as he was in Africa filming a movie at the time of the news came out. He made arrangements to come home, and the media turned that into a scene from a movie as if he was amazingly caught by police when arriving home.

The farce got worse as the Government alleged that Snipes, and not his accountants, was responsible for a dozen people not paying their taxes. They also claimed that Snipes was the one who arranged for the filing of a 100% refund of taxes he had filed via his accountants. They hit Snipes with a dozen charges and he faced 16+ years in prison as I recall.

The major media got quiet after this point, but the facts were that Snipes fought all the charges. He made it clear that the argument the Government made was false and illogical. And he proved almost every fact as well. In the end, he went from a dozen federal counts (which he defeated) to 3 misdemeanors. Of course an embarrassed Government did not take that well. Instead of the minor probation that the 3 offenses should have garnered, Snipes was hit with 3 years in jail. It was a shocking abuse of power by the Government - sour grapes indeed.

So if Clifford Smith is paying attention, keep this in mind. Already he is ahead of Snipes in that he has not been attacked by the media in this case. He only owes $33,000, not the reported $14 million they placed against Snipes. But somehow I don't think this will end up like Willie Nelson, who walked away from owing millions ($35 million to be exact) with probation and a minor fine - without much fanfare from the media.

Smith (Method Man) is facing 5 years. Given the nature of the Government on the similar case above, I'd plea bargain quickly. If all goes well he might only get 6 months in jail. It would still be too much and insanely harsh, but considering the Snipes case it will be a cake walk.