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Legal
Lauryn Hill pleads guilty to tax evasion
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 2 July 2012
Lauryn Hill entered a guilty plea to charges of tax evasion at a hearing last Friday.
As previously reported, the singer was accused of failing to file tax returns or pay any tax on earnings of $1.8 million between 2005 and 2007. In a statement released via Tumblr the day after being handed a court summons, the singer explained that she had always intended to pay her taxes, but at the time she was trying to avoid “being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex”.
Hill is due to be sentenced in November, when she faces up to three years in prison and a $75,000 fine. At the hearing last week her lawyer, Nathan Hockman, noted this, and accused the authorities of singling his client out and bringing criminal charges against her due to her celebrity status. According to NJ.com, Hockman said: “There are many people in society who fail to file their taxes on time who only face civil liability. They chose Ms Hill [for criminal action] in particular because of who she was”.