Famed rapper-singer Lauryn Hill is due to be sentenced for tax evasion on April 22nd. The Grammy-winning star is making a last-ditch attempt to implore a judge for leniency. Hill filed documents attempting to further explain why she failed to file tax returns for 2005 through 2007–at which time she earned $1.8 million. According to TMZ, she says that fearing for her safety and the well-being of her family led her to withdraw, “from society at large due to what she perceived as manipulation and very real threats to herself and her family.”
The former Fugee pleaded guilty last year and faces more than three years in prison. Hill is asking that the judge consider the fact that she can pay off the debt much faster if she’s a free woman, along with several other factors.
Last year, Hill posted a lengthy statement on her Tumblr page attempting to explain why she didn’t pay her taxes.
“For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground. I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda. Having put the lives and needs of other people before my own for multiple years, and having made hundreds of millions of dollars for certain institutions, under complex and sometimes severe circumstances, I began to require growth and more equitable treatment, but was met with resistance.
As my potential to work, and therefore earn freely, was being threatened, I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism which I was surrounded by. This was absolutely critical while trying to find and establish a new and very necessary community of healthy people, and also heal and detoxify myself and my family while raising my young children.”
