6. Wesley Snipes – Lawsuits For Quick Cash
Wesley Snipes has been one of the most recognizable actors in Hollywood for nearly three decades. Snipes broke into television in the late ’80s and achieved stardom with 1990s films like Major League, New Jack City, and White Men Can’t Jump. Snipes’ career peaked in 1998 when he starred in Blade, the cult-classic vampire action thriller that grossed $150 million worldwide and birthed the Blade trilogy.
The 2000s, however, were not so kind to Wesley. There was no one embarrassing investment in particular, but he went down as dark a hole as any star on this list. In 2005, Snipes filed a lawsuit against the producers and director of Blade for cutting his screen time in the third installment. This lawsuit, along with a 2005 effort to fight television personality Joe Rogan, led to much speculation on Snipes’ financial health.
In 2006, the hammer dropped. Snipes was charged by the federal government for conspiracy to commit fraud and tax evasion. He avoided felony charges but was still sentenced to three years in prison for failure to file tax returns, serving his time from 2010-2013. Since his release, Snipes has starred in Expendables 3 andChi-Raq while countersuing the IRS to avoid paying $18 million in back-taxes.
Discussion about this post