Lauryn Hill Checks Into 'Minimum Security' Federal Prison for Tax Evasion
Lauryn Hill reportedly checked into federal prison in Connecticut on Monday morning to begin her three-month sentence for tax evasion.
The former Fugees singer, 38, was pled guilty to three counts of tax evasion after it was claimed that she willfully failed to file income tax returns on $1.8 million she earned from 2005 to 2007. After her stint in prison, the Grammy award-winning singer will spend three more months on house arrest followed by nine months of supervised release, according to TMZ.com.
Hill is expected to serve the duration of her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, which is said to be a "minimum security type facility" where inmates live in "barracks type" housing, TMZ reported.
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Shortly before Hill's most recent court hearing her attorney told the media that his client had scraped together more than $970,000 to repay her debt to the government. In speaking directly to the judge the mother-of-six likened her legal woes to slavery.
"I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of. ... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me," Hill said.
"I sold 50 million units ... now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is," she added.
The singer first rose to fame in the mid nineties when she became a lead member of the highly successfully music group "The Fugees" with Wyclef Jean.
The hip-hop group produced hit songs including "Killing Me Softly," and "Ready or Not" from their 1996 album "The Score" which won them a Grammy award.
Hill has five children with Rohan Marley, who is the son of reggae legend Bob Marley, and a son with another man.
Shortly before her sentencing Hill signed a record deal with Sony in a bid to generate an income to pay the hefty tax bill after intentionally staying out of the limelight for over a decade.
"It has been reported that I signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes. Yes, I have recently entered into an agreement with Sony Worldwide Entertainment, to launch a new label, on which my new music will be released. And yes, I am working on new music," Hill wrote via her personal Tumblr page.
"I've remained silent, after an extensive healing process. This has been a 10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors, but now in front of the public eye," she added.
