Exclusive: DMX’s Lawyer Begs For Mercy Ahead Of $1.7 Million Tax Fraud Sentencing

DMX

Rapper To Be Sentenced In Tax Evasion Case This Week

DMX’s lawyer has begged for mercy from the judge as the rapper prepares to be sentenced in his $1.7 million tax fraud case, BOSSIP has learned.

DMX’s lawyer Murray Richman wrote a letter to the court – which was obtained by BOSSIP – where he spelled out a ton of alternatives to prison time, like monitored restitution and even a stint in former NBA star Jayson Williams’ rehab center.

Richman also cited X’s terrible childhood as the main reason why he couldn’t keep his nose clean, and said that the rapper didn’t really have a grasp on what taxes were.

“We discussed his perception of taxes and he said ‘I grew up on welfare,” Richman’s letter says. “‘In my neighborhood on the first of the month, the mailman was robbed (because that’s when the checks came in). What do I know about taxes?’”

The feds said DMX knowingly withheld paying taxes for years, and owes some $1.7 million to Uncle Sam. The rapper has been locked up since January after repeatedly failing sobriety tests, according to court papers. Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to make an example out of X and throw him in prison for five years.

Instead of prison time, Richman suggested “trusteeship” as one possible choice as part of DMX’s sentencing, and said from now on, the government could garnish his future contracts into an escrow fund that would allow him to pay his back taxes, support his children and “to insure that he is paid by unscrupulous people as what has emerged as a definitive pattern of at best mismanagement and at worst larceny,” Richman wrote the judge.

The lawyer said Williams reached out to him to offer help to DMX at his facility, The Rebound Center, where patients are referred to as “teammates” and are put on an exercise regimen in addition to working on their drug and alcohol addictions.

The reason why the “Slippin” rapper continues to use is because of his tragic childhood and “personal trauma,” Richman said, also noting that X would like to be a pastor.

DMX was repeatedly beaten and abused by his mother, and his lawyer cited one brutal incident where he said DMX’s mother knocked two of his teeth out for correcting a spelling error in her notebook. The mom also threw his puppy down the incinerator, the lawyer said. The mom later abandoned him at an orphanage when he was 10, the lawyer told the judge.

Richman said although DMX has enjoyed more than two decades in the music biz, “he literally has no idea what he is actually earning and where that money is,” Richman wrote. But, the lawyer said with the 20th anniversary of “It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot” approaching, he had a huge opportunity to earn money and pay his restitution.

DMX will be in federal court Thursday for his sentencing.