Singer Lauryn Hill Guilty of Tax Evasion

R&B Singer Lauryn Hill pleaded guilty for tax evasion on Friday in a New Jersey courtroom. Hill failed to pay the appropriate amount of taxes on the $1.8 million she earned between 2005-2007. She could receive a one year jail sentence.

The reason behind Hill’s decision not to pay taxes it a bit vague, but the singer took to her Tumlbr to try and explain her side of the story:

“For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground. I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda.”

Hill went on to write that her success in the music industry forced her decision to move away from a public life. Hill turned “away from a lifestyle that required distortion and compromise as a means of maintaining it…During this period of crisis, much was said about me both slanted and inaccurate, by those who had become dependent on my creative force, yet unwilling to fully acknowledge the importance of my contribution, nor compensate me equitably for it.”

Hill and her attorney Nathan Hochman, told the courts that the singer plans on paying back all the taxes she owes. Thus, the sentencing has been delayed from October to November.

Despite the whole situation however, Hill stands her ground and maintains that she was in the right.

“I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that I was surrounded by. There were no exotic trips, no fleet of cars, just an all out war for safety, integrity, wholeness and health, without mistreatment, denial, and/or exploitation.”