Beanie Sigel News – First foreclosure, now Tax evasion “C’mon Son”

The “great opportunity” asking price for the brick Colonial in Landsale with two fireplaces, skylights and 9-foot ceilings was $349,000. Yet even though the opening price at the Montgomery County sheriff’s sale was just the property’s $264,000 mortgage debt, nobody bid.

So a Utah bank simply took back the deed for the house of Dwight Grant, aka Beanie Sigel.

By yesterday, the foreclosure was the least of his problems. U.S. Attorney David Memeger announced his office charged the 36-year-old with failing to file tax returns from 2002 to 2004. An IRS investigation determined he earned more than $1.54 million during that time. The minimum income to file is less than $24,000.

Though Grant faces three years in federal prison, a $300,000 fine and one-year supervised release, his attorney Fortunato Perri Jr. said they’ve been working with the government to resolve the tax issues and “hope to do so in the near future.”

“There’s no question he didn’t file the returns. It was from a time when he was struggling with earlier criminal problems and others were handling his money while he was incarcerated,” Perri said. “Someone put hands on his money when they shouldn’t have.”

Grant was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after being guilty of federal weapons charges in Oct. 2004. The initial foreclosure filing was Halloween 2007.

“He’s alright. It’s something he was aware of,” Perri said of Grant’s reaction.

More about Beanie Sigel

Related Articles

• “Beanie Sigel To Be Charged With Tax Fraud” and related posts (hiphopwired.com)
• Rapper Beanie Sigel charged with tax evasion (philly.com)
• Rapper Beanie Sigel charged in Pa. with tax fraud (sfgate.com)

Philly tax demands blog bucks

Bloggers beware: In Philadelphia, your opinion may come with a price — which the city bureaucracy  wants from you for the right to write online.

The “blogger’s business fee” gained critical steam via alt-weekly attention last week and a Twitter-frenzy yesterday after the taxman sent letters demanding one-time $300 BPT payments from bloggers. By Monday, the phrase “Philadelphia taxing bloggers” drew 2.2 million Google results.

The primary issue online is over freedom of speech for bloggers making no, or little, money. One website called it “medieval,” but Philly City Hall said yesterday that many in the blogosphere have got it wrong.

“If you don’t generate revenues from the enterprise — like a mom blogging about her kids or someone blogging as a creative outlet without ads — you don’t need to pay taxes,” spokeswoman Maura Kennedy said.

The city didn’t share how the blogger list was compiled or how they’ll discern between profitable ones and non-moneymakers.

Related Articles

• Philadelphia Bloggers License Causes Controversy (huffingtonpost.com)
• Philly blog tax: reality or rumour? (guardian.co.uk)