While appearing in court on March 22, rapper Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Atkins pleaded guilty to three counts of tax evasion after failing to pay taxes on $3 million in income that he earned from 2004 to 2006, leaving the rapper facing up to three years in prison.
According to the Associated Press, while appearing in U.S. District Court in Newark, Atkins answered several questions from U.S. Magistrate Patty Schwartz and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Mack.
Atkins, who was living in upscale Saddle Creek, N.J., with his wife and kids at the time, earned the money from music royalties and live performances, taking home as much as $1.59 million in 2005 before gradually seeing his income decrease to $490,000 in 2008.
The government estimated that the multiplatinum-selling rapper owes a total of $1.1 million in taxes for those three years.
If Atkins meets the conditions of his plea deal, the government will drop two other counts of unpaid taxes for about $1 million he earned from 2007 to 2008.
Atkins will be sentenced on June 13 for the charges. However, five days before his sentencing, he’s scheduled to report to prison in New York for a two-year sentence he received after pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in December 2010.
Atkins’ attorney, Stacey Richman, is expected to file to have Atkins serve his tax evasion sentence concurrently with his weapons possession sentence.
Richman told AP that Atkins, who’s admittedly handling the situation well, surrendered himself voluntarily and plans to pay his delinquent taxes.
“He’s been working on addressing these issues for some time, and he’s taking full responsibility,” said Richman.
What do you think of Atkins’ tax evasion ordeal? –nicholas robinson
