The star of Blade Trilogy, the actor Wesley Snipes was acquitted on Friday of of felony tax fraud and conspiracy charges.

In October 2006, Wesley Snipes was accused by the Justice Department and IRS of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Services with taxes on $38 million he earned from films and investments from 1999 to 2004.

Wesley Snipes would have faced up to 16 years in prison if he had been convicted of those  charges.

However, the jurors ruled that Wesley Snipes is guilty on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file tax returns. The punishment for each misdemeanor is a maximum one-year sentence. 

"Filing taxes is not optional. It is a legal requirement. Mr. Snipes now faces up to three years in federal prison for his willful failure to comply with the law," U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill said in a statement.

During the federal trial, Wesley Snipes pleaded not guilty. "Our position has been all along that Mr. Snipes committed no fraud," said Robert Bernhoft, Snipes' attorney, after the verdict came in. "He had no bad intent, and that's what the jury accepted."

The officials of the Internal Revenue Service said they will continue to pursue Snipes, but in a civil lawsuit.  

"Ultimately, if he really wants to take this all the way, he can go to tax court," said Victor Lessoff, a special agent with the IRS. "But we will pursue, civilly, the taxes. That's very important to us."

Eddie Ray Kahn, of Sorrento, Fla., and Douglas P. Rosile, of Venice, Fla., were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and presenting a fraudulent claim for payment to the IRS.

Kahn was the founder and leader of American Rights Litigators, a tax protestor organization based in Lake County, Fla. Rosile prepared returns for ARL clients, such as Snipes. Rosile is described as a former certified public accountant who continued to do accounting work after his license had expired. Each could be sentenced to up to ten years in prison.

After the verdict was announced, Wesley Snipes refused to take questions from the media, but his attorney reiterated that the actor is not a fraudster.

"There was no intent to defraud anybody — he's not a fraudster, he's not a felon," defense attorney Robert Barnes said. "There's a couple of returns he should have filed. He'll be looking to make amends on anything he needs to make amends on."