Baldwin may avoid prison in tax saga

Associated Press

(File image) Stephen Baldwin

London - Stephen Baldwin is set to agree a deal over an alleged unpaid $350 000 tax bill.

The 46-year-old actor is accused of failing to pay income tax in Rockland County, north-west of Manhattan, for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010, but his attorney Russell Yankwitt says he will avoid prison and get up to five years to pay back the money owed, according to Fox News.

He added that under the deal, Stephen will plead guilty this month to a tax felony and if he manages to pay the money back in one year, his record will be wiped clean.

Stephen's arrest for tax evasion in December came six months after a court rejected the born-again Christian's claim that he and a friend missed out on a lucrative contract with oil company BP thanks to Kevin Costner and his business partner in oil cleanup, Patrick Smith.

Stephen and co-plaintiff Spyridon Contogouris, were asking for at least $17-million in damages at federal court in New Orleans, however were awarded nothing.

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Costner offered BP the services of a device he had helped develop, and BP contracted to buy 32 of the oil-and-water-separating centrifuges in the summer of 2010.

Stephen, an early investor in Stephen's Ocean Therapy Solutions, sold his shares before the deal went through-and was demanding the sum to fill the hole left by the money he said he could have made if he had known they were on the verge of a lucrative transaction. - Bang Showbiz