US prosecutors would like to make an example out of Wesley Snipes for tax evasion. The prosecutors said that the action movies super star should serve three years in prison and pay a $5 million fine for failing to file tax results.

By showing Snipes the rough side of the law, prosecutors said they hoped to send a message to all the tax avoiders who defied authorities over the past couple of years and cheated the government of $41 million, U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill of Florida wrote in a court paper.

Snipes, a fourth-degree Black Belt in Shotokan Karate and Capoeira student, had trouble fighting the long arm of the law. He was found guilty in February of tax evasion, but was cleared of more serious charges such as fraud, fraudulently claiming tax refunds and conspiracy to defraud the government.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of one year and the 45-year-old actor was cleared on two felony charges.

O’Neill called for a heavy penalty in Snipes’ case because, as he wrote in court documents, he finds the case a “singular opportunity” to “deter tax crime nationwide”.

“This case cries out for the statutory maximum term of imprisonment, as well as a substantial fine, because of the seriousness of defendant Snipes’ crimes and because of the singular opportunity this case presents to deter tax crime nationwide,” O’Neill wrote.

Two other men were also charged in the case along Snipes. The two were affiliated with American Rights Litigators/Guiding Light of God ministries, a Florida-based tax protest organization and were found guilty of conspiring to defraud and making false claims.

Snipes and the two men “brazenly waged a campaign” against the Internal Revenue Service,
the sentencing recommendation said.

Snipes’ lawyers acknowledged the fact that the actor had been “dead wrong” and he should pay the tax money he owns, but denied that he committed a crime.

“Disagreement with the IRS is not fraud of the IRS, is not deception,” said defense lawyer Robert Barnes.