The hits just keep on coming for rapper and actor Ja Rule, who was sentenced yesterday in Newark to more than two years in federal prison for failing to file income-tax returns, a month after a Manhattan judge ordered him jailed for a Big Apple gun possession charge.
“I in no way attempted to deceive the government or do anything illegal,” Ja Rule said, minutes before being sentenced in federal court. “I was a young man who made a lot of money — I’m getting a little choked up — I didn’t know how to deal with these finances, and I didn’t have people to guide me, so I made mistakes.”
The multiplatinum-selling artist, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, admitted in March that he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million that he earned between 2004 and 2006 while living in Saddle River, NJ. Although the Queens native pleaded guilty to three counts of unfiled taxes, he admitted he hadn’t filed for five years, according to US Attorney Paul Fishman.
Ja Rule, 35, was sentenced last month to up to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempted criminal weapon possession.
US Magistrate Patty Shwartz ruled that the majority of his 28-month federal sentence could be served at the same time as the New York state prison sentence at the Oneida Correctional Facility upstate.
Ja Rule also has been ordered to pay $1.1 million in unpaid taxes.