Lauryn Hill, the singer from Fugees, has received a three-month prison sentence for not paying approximately $1 million in taxes over the last ten years.
Along with the three-month imprisonment, Hill is required to pay a fine of $60,000. After serving her time, she will be in home confinement for three months and will be under parole supervision for a year.
While at her sentencing, Hill likened her situation to the slavery faced by her ancestors, stating, “I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them,” she remarked. “I had an economic system imposed on me.”
Upon her arrest last year, Hill penned a critique of the entertainment industry’s “climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Moser criticized Hill’s justification for her actions, referring to it as “a parade of excuses centering around her feeling put upon.”
Last year, Hill pleaded guilty to not paying taxes on over $1.8 million earned between 2005 and 2007. The sentencing that took place yesterday also included unpaid federal and state taxes from 2008 and 2009, raising the total to about $2.3 million. Reports indicate that she made a payment of $900,000 in recent days but still owes interest and penalties.
During the court proceedings, Hill occasionally pounded her fist on the podium as she addressed the magistrate, explaining that her tax issues originated from a time when she withdrew from the music industry to safeguard herself and her children. Reflecting on that period, she stated: “There were veiled threats, there was blacklisting…I was
