Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes reported last night to a US federal prison in Pennsylvania to begin serving a three-year sentence for failing to file income tax returns.
The star of the Blade trilogy, White Men Can't Jump and Jungle Fever, who was convicted in 2008, arrived at Federal Correction Institution McKean in Lewis Run, Pennsylvania.
"He surrendered a short time ago and is now inside the facility," Ed Ross, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman. "He'll go through an orientation process and will begin serving his sentence."
The Pennsylvania prison is a medium security facility with an adjacent satellite prison camp for minimum security offenders. It is understood Snipes will serve his term in the camp, where 300 non-violent inmates live in barracks that feature two-man rooms.
Snipes (48), was convicted in an Ocala, Florida, court for wilful failure to file federal tax returns from 1999 until 2001.
Each of the misdemeanour counts carried a maximum one-year prison term. He was found not guilty on five other counts.
Snipes' attorney, Daniel Meachum, has said he believes the case contains irregularities, and he plans to seek a review. Last month, he argued a new trial should be granted because of testimony by Kenneth Starr, a former financial adviser to celebrities, who admitted during a plea hearing last September in New York to cheating wealthy and elderly clients out of tens of millions of dollars.
Agencies