R&B singer Ron Isley gets 3 years for tax evasion

The smooth R&B crooner Ronald Isley, 65, has been sentenced to prison and will serve a term of three years and one month for five counts of tax evasion and failing to file a tax return.

The smooth R&B crooner Ronald Isley, 65, has been sentenced to prison and will serve a term of three years and one month for five counts of tax evasion and failing to file a tax return. Ronald Isley was ordered to pay a sum of $3.1 million dollars in back taxes due to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Prosecutors said Isley failed to make any voluntary payments to the IRS between 1976 and 1996 throughout the three week trial. It was also brought up that he spent millions of dollars of unreported cash payments for performances on a yacht and two homes, and cashed royalty checks belonging to his late brother, O’Kelly, who died of a heart attack in 1986.

Due to him having complications from a stroke and kidney cancer, defense attorney Anthony Alexandar, argued that Ronald Isley should receive probation instead of prison time.

Even though defense attorney Anthony Alexandar held on to what he believed to help Isley, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson declined to sentence Isley to less time than called for under federal guidelines.

Prosecutors stated Isley, lead singer of The Isley Brothers, avoided paying taxes numerous times in the past three decades and declared bankruptcy after the IRS seized his yacht, cars and other property in 1997.

Ronald Isley was discharged from bankruptcy four years later, but then did not file tax returns for the years 1997 to 2001 and in 2002 did not sign his return and failed to pay all taxes due.

Isley’s recent albums include a 2003 collaboration with Burt Bacharach titled “Here I Am” and The Isley Brothers album “Baby Makin’ Music”. The group’s hits include “It’s Your Thing” and “That Lady (Who’s That Lady)”.

Ronald Isley is expected to be sent to a Bureau of Prisons hospital facility.