Philadelphia rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced Thursday (July 12) to two years behind bars for failing to file federal income taxes. The former Jay-Z protégé and Roc-A-Fella artist owes the Internal Revenue Service $728,536 from 1999 to 2005.
Prosecutors in the case described the “Rock The Mic” MC as a career criminal who has shown blatant disregard for the law since he was a teenager coming up on the streets of South Philadelphia. In a sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul L. Gray said Sigel “has utterly failed to cooperate with the probation officer’s attempts to determine his current financial condition.”
For his part, Sigel told U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois that he completely accepted “total responsibility” for his offenses. “I haven’t been able to get my career back on track since,” Sigel said in court of his tax issues, which he claims stemmed from money mismanagement by family members during 2004-2005 when he was in jail on drug and gun charges.