Actor Wesley Snipes has been ordered to start serving a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion after a judge rejected his bid for a new trial.
"The defendant Snipes had a fair trial... the time has come for the judgement to be enforced," US district judge Terrell Hodges said in his ruling. He ordered the 48-year-old star of the Blade film trilogy to report to prison as directed by the US Marshal's Service or Bureau of Prisons. But it was not immediately clear when or where Snipes would begin serving his time behind bars.
His lawyer, Daniel Meachum, was reported as saying the ruling was "just shocking", adding: "Wesley is very disappointed but staying strong and positive". Snipes, who lives in Windermere, Florida, was found guilty in 2008 on three misdemeanour counts of willful failure to file his tax returns on an income of over $38m (£24m). He received a three-year sentence - the maximum the actor could have received for the offences. After his conviction and failure to appeal the sentence, Snipes sought a new trial.
Mr Meachum had argued that jurors in the original trial were biased and that the prosecution's star witness had his own criminal problems. Although best known for his roles in action films, Snipes has also had critical success in comedies like White Men Can't Jump (1992). He played the lead in director Spike Lee's interracial drama Jungle Fever (1991) and also played the jazz saxophonist in Lee's Mo' Better Blues (1990).