Wesley Snipes' attorney has dismissed reports the actor has surrendered to authorities to begin his prison term after he was listed by federal officials as "in transit". On Friday, November 19, a Florida judge ordered the "Blade" star to turn himself into police immediately to start his three-year sentence for tax evasion.
Snipes' legal representatives have been fighting his 2008 conviction for the past two years, after he was found guilty of failing to file returns or pay tax on earnings of $38 million, dating back to 1999. The 48 year old appealed the ruling but lost the case earlier this year.
Reports emerged on Monday, November 22 suggesting Snipes was in the custody of U.S. Marshals after the Federal Bureau of Prisons website stated Snipes was "in transit". But the actor's lawyer, Daniel Meachum, insists his client is still a free man and they have not been given a deadline to surrender.
And Meachum has no plans for Snipes to surrender just yet - he's determined to have the ruling overturned. He says, "Mr. Snipes is not in custody and at this point we have not received a self-surrender date or facility."
"However, we are working hard so that there is never a surrender date or facility for Mr. Snipes to report to other than his house or any other place that he chooses to visit. In other words we as his lawyers are concentrating more on freeing Mr. Snipes than we are the facility of incarceration. If it comes to that we will deal with it at that time."
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