Rapper Ja Rule, who’s currently serving two years in jail on a weapons conviction, has been sentenced to 28 months in a federal prison for tax evasion, according to eonline.com.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz handed down the jail term stemming from Ja Rule’s guilty plea in March to three counts of failing to file tax returns with the IRS from 2004 to 2008.
“Taxpayers do not have the luxury of deciding whether to comply with laws,” the judge said while ruling.
Ja Rule owes the government $1.1 million, mostly from taxes never collected on music royalty income from the rapper’s company ASJA Inc. and music tour and live performance-related profits from Rule Tours Inc., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.
Ja rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, stood before the judge in a bright-yellow prison-issued jumpsuit and expressed remorse for what he did.
“I want to say I’m sorry,” the New Jersey Star-Ledger quoted him as telling the court. “I in no way attempted to deceive the government.”
He added, “I was a young man who made a lot of money…I didn’t actually know how to deal with these finances [and] I didn’t have the best people guide me.”
Judge Shwartz did allow Ja Rule to serve the sentences concurrently, meaning he’ll likely be released from the slammer four months after his jail term on the unrelated gun charge ends. The judge also sentenced the 35-year-old MC to one year of supervised release.
However, that deal is only good if he files “true and accurate” tax returns and pays the government back all taxes and penalties owed for those missing years.
“I made mistakes,” Ja admitted. “Things kind of spun out of control.”
