As reported in June, Bronx emcee and D.I.T.C. member Fat Joe has been sentenced to four months in prison for the tax evasion he committed over a period of two years and pled guilty of last December. Today (August 5), Fat Joe visited The Breakfast Club and talked about the source of his legal troubles, as well as his prison sentence.
Joe said that his longtime accountant retired on short notice after a family tragedy. Regarding his new accountant and the news of his unpaid bills and taxes, Fat Joe said, “He took over my stuff…I had the guy paying all my bills, so I’m wiring him money every month to pay all my bills, my taxes. I’m asking him if everything is alright. He said, ‘It’s cool,’ this and that, right. He’s doing everything. So one day I go get a car and then I went to get my credit report…so the guy was like, ‘Yo, you sitting down?’ I thought he was joking. He was like, ‘Yo, this shows here that none of your mortgages is paid. None of your cars is paid. None of this.’ So this is how I found out. So I called [my accountant] up and..the next day he paid everything off.”
Given that his period of nonpayment of taxes lasted for two years, Fat Joe and another new accountant eventually approached the IRS themselves. The IRS told him, “‘You still owe 60 [thousand],’” Fat Joe said. “So I wrote a check right quick for the $60,000.”
The Terror Squad CEO and founding member said that before penalties, he “wound up spending like [$1.2 million] in the end. And I’m not Jay Z or none of that. And penalties was on top of that. After you pay them off, they hit you with, ‘Surprise!’”
The repayment and penalty fees are obviously not the end of the ordeal, as Fat Joe reconfirmed his four-month prison bid, for which he will report August 26. Despite his upcoming sentence and the large sum he’s paid back, Joe was also in good spirits and found light in the situation. “In the words of Chris Gotti, my good friend, it could be worse,” he said.
Fat Joe is only the latest in a string of rappers to face jail time for tax evasion. Lauryn Hill began her three month prison sentence in Connecticut last month for nonpayment of $1 million and Ja Rule completed a two-year sentence for a gun charge, only to be held longer for an unrelated tax evasion charge earlier this year.
While on the show, Fat Joe also talked about feeling underappreciated by a current crop of emcees and fans for his previous contributions, the mentorship role he played for many artists and his alleged involvement in an altercation with Jay Z alongside Big Pun.
Related: Lauryn Hill Provides An Update On Her Prison Experience
that was a dope interview
officer ricky gonna have his boys look out for his pal joe. he’ll be aight!
It was a dope moment when 50 and Joe squashed their beef when Chris Lighty passed
yeah right after they beat down gunplay and took his MMG chain LMAO
DaVinchee coming
fat joe a real vet in the rap game do your research respect bx stand up!!
Usury and all this other bullshit is an extreme violation of Gods laws, such practices, on such a vast scale will not indefinitely go unrequited.
I hate when people blame their problems on accountants. His accountant more than likely told Fat Joe he was broke. So dude hasn’t been able to pay any bills for awhile. MAN UP!, stop blaming others for your shortcomings.
bet your got a whole heap of unpaid debts on your stinking closet!
I don’t got Fat Joe’s income and even I had a crazy situation with an accountant handling my taxes. He took forever to file, lied a lot, kept saying everything is OK, etc. I ended up catching penalties over this idiot accountant. After that thing, of course, I dumped the accountant, never used him again.
It’s easy to get caught up with a bad accountant. And what makes it get crazier too is if you submit to them all original paperwork. When you submit original paperwork (and dont have copies!), it’s not like you can just run to another accountant. You have to deal with the bastard you hired.
Only the self-employed or those running small businesses would understand this kinda thing.
You owe me 60k Joey. Don’t forget that shit or else that 4 month bid will jump to 40.
What, no rant about how hundreds of years of racial oppression made him not pay his taxes? What a boring article.
Not for nothing, but when you owe the government over a million dollars in taxes for a two year period, you’re doing pretty damn well financially. If you think that equals being broke you probably don’t know much about making money.
He’s not gona make it
How can you “Commit” tax evasion? Commit implies an action, tax evasion is lack of action…
HAHA THATS THE ART OF WORDPLAY!
Yes Mr. You Think You are So Clever. You evaded (lack of action) paying your taxes. You have to pay taxes when you owe, not paying is a crime. I guess in your book, people who have kids and don’t look back (lack of action, so they are not doing anything) are not doing anything wrong right?
I want to hear those fat joe biggie tracks… dang!
country club
i got lawers watching lawers so i want go broke! (biggie)
Do you think you are now a gangsta Joe? Tax evasion? lol Gucci is laugin his fuckin ass of.
Gucci Mane = realest rapper ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
– T.I. snitch to the feds
– Young Jeezy was never bmf
– 50 Cent snitch and was never in jail but a youthcamp
– Game was never a banger but lived the life of his brother in his lyrics
– Nas Escobar never sold drugs
– Ice Cube never was a gangbanger
– Dr Dre never was a gangbanger
– 2pac was a ballerina and never sold drugs after he become famous he was doing some stupid stuff like beating and shooting at people because he though he could get away with it. Without Suge Knight 2pac was just a skinny motherfucker. Oh and i like his music so fuck you.
– Mobb deep are the biggiest pussies in rap they are short as midgets and keep talking this g shit but never did g shit.
Fat joe was running the streets back when Gucci was playing with lego and dreaming of one day tatting an ice cream cone on his face
gotta respect joe word life got his money outthe game fuck up got it back smoked good did his thing hes not finnished just yet