On Friday, actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to pay federal income taxes for close to ten years. Snipes could have been sentenced to up to 16 years if he had been convicted of all charges, but he was not convicted of tax fraud and conspiracy back in February. He owes close to $20 million according to the IRS. Snipes maintains he was dupped, but the judge thought otherwise: But U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said Snipes exhibited a "history of contempt over a period of time" for U.S. tax laws, and granted prosecutors the sentence they requested — one year for each of Snipes' convictions of willfully failing to file a tax return from 1999-2001. The Snipes case is the highest profile tax evasion prosecution since the billionaire Leona Helmsley was convicted of tax fraud in 1989.