KEY POINTS:
ORLANDO, Florida - Actor Wesley Snipes pleaded not guilty at the weekend to charges he illegally claimed millions of dollars in tax refunds and was allowed to quickly return to an African movie set, US prosecutors.
A Florida court released Snipes, who starred in the vampire-hunter movie series Blade, on a US$1 million bond and allowed him to return to Namibia where he is filming the horror western Gallowwalker.
He must return to the United States and surrender his passport by January 10 with a trial date in March, the US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a statement.
Snipes arrived on Saturday by private jet from Namibia in southern Africa to Orlando International Airport in Florida, where he was arrested and taken to Ocala for an initial court appearance.
He then returned to the airport and held a news conference. His lawyers said he was due to fly back to Namibia via the Bahamas later in the day.
"I look forward to vindicating myself and clearing my name," Snipes, who looked relaxed and wore a suit and tinted glasses, told reporters.
One of his lawyers, Daniel Meachum, told the news conference: "Mr Snipes was a victim of tax advisors."
Snipes has appeared in more than three dozen movies including the Blade series, Jungle Fever, White Men Can't Jump, Rising Sun and US Marshals.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, on October 17 on charges he illegally claimed tax refunds of almost US$12 million. The indictment also said he failed to file income tax returns from 1999 through 2004.
The conspiracy and false claim charges each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, said the statement.
Snipes also faces up to one year in prison on each charge of failing to file income tax returns.
In all, he faces up to a 16 years in prison.
The actor, who was born in Orlando and once had a home in nearby Windermere, broke into movies in the 1986 film Wildcats, starring Goldie Hawn.
Snipes earlier said in an email to Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell that he was being targeted unfairly at least partly because he is black and famous.
"It appears I'm to be the scapegoat, because there's more public interest in 'celebrities gone bad' than 'rich people being taken advantage of,'" Snipes said in the email.
"Being a black male who asks questions doesn't help the situation either," he said.
Snipes was charged along with Eddie Ray Kahn of Sorrento, Florida, and Douglas Rosile of Venice, Florida, who has surrendered to the police, Paul Perez, the district attorney said in October.
Perez said Kahn is the founder of American Rights Litigators (ARL) and its successor, Guiding Light of God Ministries (GLGM), both based in central Florida. Rosile is an accountant who prepared tax returns for ARL members.
The indictment said ARL claimed to use aggressive accountants to protect Americans' rights and the GLGM "held itself out as a Christian ministry ... established to assist men and women in their pursuit of truth and freedom as Americans."
"In reality, ARL and GLGM were for-profit, commercial enterprises that promoted and sold fraudulent tax schemes ...," the indictment said.
- REUTERS
