After pleading guilty in January to filing falsified tax returns, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino has been sentenced to eight months behind bars.
According to his plea agreement, Sorrentino is said to have evaded taxes from 2010 and 2012, a period which witnessed him earn just under $9 million. Here are more details from the NY Daily News.
One of the breakout stars of MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” Sorrentino ducked five years of potential jail time in the case and received less than the 14 months federal prosecutors requested. Sorrentino, 37, had asked for only probation. It wasn’t immediately clear Friday where he will serve his sentence and when it will start. The honey-hued reality star attended the sentencing with his fiancée Lauren Pesce.
The cast of his hit reality TV show also made courthouse cameos, including Paul (Pauly D) DelVecchio, Jenni (JWoww) Farley and Nicole (Snooki) Polizzi. The tight-knit friends rallied around The Sitch while their “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” reunion series is now in its second season on MTV. Sorrentino declined to speak with reporters after the hearing but offered an apology to U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in court. Sorrentino said he was committed to “overcoming my demons and putting my life back together” after years of substance abuse. “Today I’m a man that I should have been years ago,” he told the court.
“The Situation” is said to have used multiple cash deposits in a single day to avoid alerting banks. His brother Marc was also sentenced to two years and fined $75,000 after falsifying records to obstruct a grand jury investigation. Here are additional details on his charges.
The feds claimed the brothers understated the windfall in tax returns and allegedly used money from their business bank accounts to pay for personal items such as high-end luxury vehicles and clothing. Marc previously faced a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for obstruction but also copped a deal with prosecutors. Under his plea agreement, Marc pleaded guilty to aiding in the preparation of a false and fraudulent tax return and admitted he under-reported his income for 2010, 2011 and 2012.