Exclusive: Judge Rips “Broke” Mario Winans At Tax Fraud Sentencing
When The Checks Stop Coming In Exclusive: Judge Rips “Broke” Mario Winans At Tax Fraud Sentencing
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 15: Mario Winans attends the Nickelodeon Sports Little Ballers Indiana Pre-Screening at Viacom Screening Room on February 15, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for CMA Productions)
Judge Said Mario Winans Has To Get His Life Together
A federal judge in singer Mario Winans tax evasion case ripped the singer for still living large even though he is broke and outright neglecting one of his sons.
But Judge Esther Salas Monday stopped short of sentencing the former Bad Boy artist to the maximum of two years in federal prison at his sentencing hearing Monday after he pled guilty to one count of failure to file taxes under a plea deal. Winans admitted that he’d only filed federal taxes once in the last 12 years.
Judge Salas warned Winans that this was his last chance – and one screw up would land him in lockup.
“The days of you putting things off are over, and if you do that, you are going to be saying goodbye to your kids,” the judge said.
Instead of prison, Judge Salas sentenced him to five years probation, 500 hours of community service at a boys music school in Newark, pay $434,968 in restitution and seek mental health treatment.
“Do I think custody is the answer? No, I do not,” Judge Salas said. “I think putting him in jail does not allow him to make a living and pay the taxes back.”
During the two hour hearing, the court heard how Winans was already struggling to pay his bills: besides owing $178,000 in child support, he is two months behind on the $6,200 a month rent on his $1.4 million home in Fort Lee, had trouble paying his legal fees for the case and resorted to borrowing large sums of money from his mother in order to stay afloat.
“He’s in the negative,” Winans’ lawyer Aidan O’Connor said. “He understands that this is not a sustainable path.”
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 21: Mario Winans performs onstage during the Puff Daddy and The Family Bad Boy Reunion Tour presented by Ciroc Vodka and Live Nation at Barclays Center on May 21, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation )
The judge also said it was a disgrace that Winans was failing to support his tween son, Jordan, and ordered that back and current child-support be paid immediately. New Jersey cops arrested Winans earlier this month because he owed $178,000 in back support for the boy.
“You made the decision to go behind Joy’s (his wife) back,” Judge Salas said. “This is your son and you have to pay your obligations to him now and forever.”
Winans declined to comment outside of court, but during the hearing, he begged for mercy And said that his crime was born out of “procrastination through fear”.
“ I understand that I have to get my life in order,” he said. “It has been a tremendous lesson for me to deal with this…” I promise you that I will do better and get my life together.”
The judge was livid, telling Winans that he had to stop spending so frivolously and start paying back the IRS and his nearly $200,000 in back child support.
“I’m gonna give you a shot,” she told Winans. “But you have to fly straight.”
Federal prosecutors pushed for prison time, and said that the IRS tried to rectify the debt with Winans 26 times, but he ignored them.
Winan’s lawyer Aidan O’Connor said his client made a bunch of bad money choices, but was not knowingly trying to avoid paying taxes.
“He is in some sense a very sophisticated musician,” O’Connor told the judge, “but a somewhat unsophisticated person when it comes to his finances.”
