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| The official mugshot of entertainer Lauryn Hill. The 37-year old singer will be spending time in the iron college for not paying her taxes. She goes into an epic rant about how the United States Justice System screws over Black people. |
She's lucky!
The former Fugee singer could have gotten at least 10 years in the federal joint for deliberately not paying her taxes. The singer will go to the federal joint for a three month stay and a few years of probation.
Lauryn Hill appears as an artist on Sony Music Entertainment.
The entertainer is one of many Black celebrities in the news for blowing money fast. She joins the ranks of Lil' Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Young Buck, Wesley Snipes, R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz as entertainers who have a longstanding issue with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The singer may have to fork over Grammy's, her platinum plaques, her home, car and her trademarks as collateral.
Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actress. Early in her career, she established her reputation as an actress in the film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, and then as the front woman of the hip-hop group Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The album sold over eight million copies and earned five Grammy Awards for Hill, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist.
To date, she has won a total of eight Grammys.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark, N.J. federal court also sentenced the famed rapper and actress to three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring after the prison term. Hill must also serve a year of supervised release and pay a $60,000 fine in addition to paying her tax debt to the IRS.
Hill is a 37-year-old South Orange, N.J. resident who won fame as a member of the Fugees and then launched a solo career that included the Grammy-winning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill . She pleaded guilty last year in the tax case.
In a courtroom statement to Arleo, Hill said she had always intended to pay the overdue taxes eventually, but found herself unable to raise the money during a period when she had dropped out of the music business.
Hill had faced a maximum sentence of one year each on three counts. Her lawyer, Nathan Hochman, had argued for probation.
Hochman said Hill had paid more than $970,000 to satisfy her tax liabilities.
Last month, Hill used Tumblr to address media reports that stated she'd reached new label deal with Sony Worldwide Entertainment to release music that would help her pay the tax debts. Hill confirmed a deal with Sony but said the reported nature of the deal and dollar amounts involved were inaccurate.
Prosecution records filed in the tax case by the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman showed that Hill owned and operated four private corporations in addition to her entertainment career. Royalties from the recording and film industries were Hill's primary form of income, the prosecution document charged.
Hill received more than $1.8 million in income during 2005, 2006 and 2007 but didn't file tax returns during that time. Although her guilty plea specifically related to that three-year period, Fishman said her sentence also took into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009, when she similarly failed to file tax returns. The sentence also addressed overdue New Jersey state taxes.
In all, federal prosecutors said Hill had earned approximately $2.3 million during the five years and had an unpaid tax total of $1,006,517 before more recent payments.
Hill is tentatively scheduled to begin her prison term July 8. It was not immediately clear where she would serve the sentence.
Hill took to
Tumblr to express her outrage about her sentencing.
It has been reported that I signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes. Yes, I have recently entered into an agreement with Sony Worldwide Entertainment, to launch a new label, on which my new music will be released. And yes, I am working on new music.
I’ve remained silent, after an extensive healing process. This has been a 10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors, but now in front of the public eye. This is an old conflict between art and commerce… free minds, and minds that are perhaps overly tethered to structure. This is about inequity, and the resulting disenfranchisement caused by it. I’ve been fighting for existential and economic freedom, which means the freedom to create and live without someone threatening, controlling, and/or manipulating the art and the artist, by tying the purse strings.
It took years for me to get out of the ‘parasitic’ dynamic of my youth, and into a deal that better reflects my true contribution as an artist, and (purportedly) gives me the control necessary to create a paradigm suitable for my needs. I have been working towards this for a long time, not just because of my current legal situation, but because I am an artist, I love to create, and I need the proper platform to do so.
The nature of my new business venture, as well as the dollar amount reported, was inaccurate, only a portion of the overall deal. Keep in mind, my past recordings have sold over 50,000,000 units worldwide, earning the label a tremendous amount of money (a fraction of which actually came to me).
Only a completely complicated set of traps, manipulations, and inequitable business arrangements could put someone who has accomplished the things that I have, financially in need of anything. I am one artist who finds value in openly discussing the dynamics within this industry that force artists to compromise or distort themselves and what they do, rather than allowing them to make the music that people need. There are volumes that could (and will) be said.
