Ja Rule sentenced to prison for tax evasion

Rapper Ja Rule is already in prison. After Monday (July 18), he might be staying a little longer.

The hip-hop artist (real name: Jeffrey Atkins) was sentenced to 28 months in prison for failing to pay federal income tax. He had previously pleaded guilty to failing to file tax returns for several years, Reuters reports.

He's currently about a month into a separate two-year sentence on weapons charges in New York. He'll serve the two terms concurrently, but since the federal rap is a little bit longer, he could remain in prison for a couple months longer than anticipated.

"Taxpayers do not have the luxury of deciding whether to comply with laws," federal Judge Patty Schwartz told Ja Rule as he was sentenced Monday.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1667460/ja-rule-prison-tax-troubles.jhtml
His lawyer, Stacey Richman, says she's happy Ja Rule is being allowed to serve his two sentences concurrently. "We were all very concerned about what the potentials were," Richman tells MTV News, "and we think that the outcome was very fair and that the court took him into account as an individual, and we appreciate that tremendously."