LA County DA’s Office Has Charged Comedian Carlos Mencia With 12 Counts Of Felony Tax Evasion For Failing To Report More Than $8 Million In Income
California prosecutors have charged comedian Carlos Mencia with 12 counts of felony tax fraud on Thursday.
Authorities have charged the comedian with failing to report or pay taxes on more than $8 million in earnings.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges at a news conference where he called Mencia, “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws.”
Authorities charged the 58-year-old stand-up comic with six felony counts of failure to file personal income tax with the intent to evade taxes from 2019 through 2024.
In addition, they also charged him with six similar counts for corporate taxes.
Comedian Carlos Mencia Owes $8.7 Million In Unpaid Taxes
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman told the media Mencia owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7 million.
Court records show comedian Carlos Mencia has not entered a plea and his attorney has not responded to emails seeking comment.
Police arrested Mencia at his Los Angeles home at about 7 am. He remains in custody and is being held on $250,000 bail.
He is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday. If he’s convicted of all counts he could get more than 11 years in prison. In addition, he will also have to pay the tax bills and interest that will almost double the total.
The charges are the first filed by Los Angeles County’s new Business Tax Fraud Unit. LA County DA Hochman is a former longtime prosecutor of tax cases.
Los Angeles District Attorney Hochman said Mencia regularly paid taxes before 2019. The state of California sent 78 notices to him about his delinquent bills, with no response. The charges deal only with state taxes. Hochman said the IRS has not informed his office of Mencia’s federal tax status.
Comedian Carlos Mencia was born Ned Arnel Holness in Honduras and raised in East Los Angeles. Mencia began doing stand-up in LA clubs in the late 1980s. By the early 2000s, he became one of the most popular comics in the U.S. He also did some acting in film and television. He had his own TV series, “Mind of Mencia.” the show combined stand-up with sketches on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2008.
Mencia Was Accused Of Stealing Other Comedians’ Bits And Jokes
Mencia’s comedy most often dealt with race, class and Latino culture. His career took a downward turn as he was hit with accusations from many fellow comedians of joke theft, which he always denied, from other comics.
Joe Rogan, then best known as a stand-up comic, confronted him on a club stage on the issue in a video that went viral in 2007.
Mencia had long discussions on Marc Maron’s podcast on the alleged plagiarism, acknowledging that he may have absorbed others’ material but denying outright theft.
He still does regular stand-up shows, touring clubs and small theaters. He’s scheduled to do a series of dates in Southern California this week and Las Vegas next week.
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