Ja Rule Gets Sentenced

Ja Rule, Jeffrey Atkins, 35, was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison for failing to file tax returns with the IRS.

He reportedly failed to file returns that he would have owed $1,137,912.

Full Report by CNN

Rapper Jeffrey Atkins, also known as Ja Rule, was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison for failing to file tax returns with the IRS after admitting that he did not file his taxes for five years, the Justice Department said in a news release Monday.

The 35-year-old performer from Saddle River, New Jersey, had pleaded guilty to three of five counts before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, who imposed the sentence in Newark federal court.

From 2004 through 2008, Atkins received royalties from ASJA Inc. and performance income from Rule Tours Inc., but failed to file returns that would have mandated he pay the government $1,137,912, the release said. Though he pleaded guilty to charges related only to the first three years, he will pay back taxes and penalties for all five, it said.

"Taxpayers do not have the luxury of deciding whether to comply with laws," Shwartz said in sentencing. She further sentenced Atkins to a year of supervised release.

The prison term announced Monday is to run concurrent with a previous sentence Atkins is serving on unrelated state charges.

Last month, Atkins turned himself in for a two-year prison sentence in New York after pleading guilty in December to attempted criminal possession of a weapon after police found a loaded semi-automatic firearm -- with the serial number scratched off -- hidden in the back seat of his luxury Maybach sedan, according to a statement from the Manhattan's district attorney.

CNN 
Global Grind