KEY POINTS:
Actor Wesley Snipes has told a newspaper columnist he is being unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors who indicted him on tax fraud charges.
"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 wrote in an email to Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell.
Snipes is charged with fraudulently claiming refunds totalling nearly US$12 million in 1996 and 1997 on income taxes already paid, and with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004. If convicted he faces up to 16 years in prison.
