The circumstances surrounding the tax evasion trial of Money Train star Wesley Snipes are totally bizarre. The IRS is claiming that the 45-year-old actor, who made $13 million slaying vampire-like creatures in Blade: Trinity, didn't pay a dime in income tax between 1999 and 2004. Snipes' defense team abruptly rested its case on Monday without even putting one witness on the stand to speak on Snipes' behalf. His lawyers are claiming that while the 861 argument Snipes used to avoid paying taxes is "dead wrong," employing said "dead wrong" argument does not actually mean he committed tax fraud. Even though he didn't actually, you know, pay taxes.
A running subplot in all of this is the fact that Snipes also happens to be certifiably insane ("kooky" is how his lawyers have described him). We explored the depths of his insanity, including his ties to the Georgia-based black nationalist cult the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors and his efforts to open a massive training camp for his private paramilitary group, the Royal Guard of Amen-Ra (seriously), back in our March 2007 issue. Read about it here!