By Jessica Schladebeck
New York Daily News
(TNS)
Comedian Carlos Mencia has been arrested and charged with tax evasion, prosecutors said.
During a press conference in Los Angeles County on Thursday, District Attorney Nathan Hochman revealed his office has filed 12 felony charges against Mencia, accusing the 58-year-old funnyman of failing to report personal and business income between 2019 and 2024.
They include six felony counts of failure to file personal income tax with the intent to evade taxes—one for each year—and six similar counts for corporate taxes.
In total, the standup comic owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7 million, Hochman said. He also noted that “we’re not even dealing with whatever federal tax obligations he may have also not complied with.” He added that the figures made Mencia “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws.”
“I am guessing that Mr. Mencia thought that taxes were maybe a laughing matter,” Hochman said. “They’re not a laughing matter. It’s a matter of fairness.”
Mencia was arrested at his Los Angeles home on Thursday around 7 a.m. and held on $250,000 bail. If convicted, he faces more than 11 years in prison, and he would likely have to pay the tax bills and the interest.
The case marks the first for Hochman’s new Business Tax Fraud Unit, established to investigate financial crimes involving business tax evasion, payroll tax fraud, falsified business records and underground economy schemes.
Born Ned Arnel Holness, Mencia immigrated from Honduras to the US, where he lived in East Los Angeles. He got his start doing standup in the early 1980s before shooting to fame with his show, “Mind of Mencia,” which aired on Comedy Central for four seasons between 2005 and 2008. The show was canceled that year, after Mencia was accused of stealing material from other comedians.
Mencia has consistently denied those allegations.
Despite the plagiarism backlash, Mencia continued to tour, and he has appeared in several projects over the years, including the film “Our Family Wedding” in 2010, the TV series “La Chamba” in 2012, and the 2011 comedy special “Carlos Mencia: New Territory,” his IMDb says. He also hosts a podcast called “Between the Laughs.”
With News Wire Services
Photo caption: Carlos Mencia (Business Wire)
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Tags: Carlos Mencia, Income Taxes, tax evasion, Taxes
