The Celebrity Truth

Wesley Snipes’ defence team has unexpectedly rested its case in his tax fraud trial today – without calling a single witness from a star-studded list, which included Sylvester Stallone and Muhammad Ali – with closing arguments scheduled for tomorrow (January 29).

Snipes, along with co-defendants, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P Rosile, is facing up to 16 years in prison for violating tax laws, after he failed to send in his tax returns for six years, from 1999 through 2004. He also allegedly demanded $US11 million in refunds on taxes paid in previous years, and tried to settle other US Treasury debts with fake cheques.

Snipes’ attorney, Robert Bernhoft, says the government has failed to prove that his client wilfully violated the tax laws, adding that Snipes “sincerely believed” he did not have to pay the taxes and was the victim of unscrupulous accountants.

"It’s very effective to rest the defense and not waste the jury’s time with some dog-and-pony show defense that’s absolutely unnecessary," Bernhoft says.

"It would have been real easy for us to drag a bunch of celebrities through here and try and give the jury some big show. That’s not what this is about."

The actor’s defense team initially named celebrities including including Sylvester Stallone, Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee and Woody Harrelson on its list of possible witnesses, however, the defense rested on Monday morning (January 28) in Florida, without putting a single witness on the stand to speak on behalf of Snipes.

Bernhoft says that although juries often want to hear the defendant proclaim his innocence from the stand, he believed it was best to simply rest, despite there being “a lot of witnesses ready to step up to testify on his behalf".

Snipes told reporters that he is “very confident" of a positive outcome to the trial, saying, "I was innocent from the beginning".

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Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema.

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