JANINE GETS SIX MONTHS IN PRISON FOR TAX EVASION

From XBiz.com 12.30.08

EUGENE, OR — Retired Vivid and Digital Playground contract performer Janine was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for tax evasion.

U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin also ordered her to live in a residential community corrections center for up to six months after her release from prison and to serve one year of supervised release.

Janine, 40, who now lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., under her real name, Janine M. James, had faced up to a year in prison after pleading guilty last summer to intentionally failing to pay her income taxes. During her sentencing in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cardani said she currently owes $294,000 in back taxes.

Between 2000 and 2006, during a period in which she owed $200,000 in federal income taxes, investigators alleged that she spent more than $750,000. She paid $648,000 for a home in Eugene in October 2005. She used nearly $163,000 from her divorce settlement from her former husband, Jesse James, owner of the West Coast Choppers motorcycle fabricator shop and host of the Monster Garage television show on the Discovery Channel, for the purchase.

The government alleged that Janine, who earned $350,101 in 2004, had failed to pay on a tax bill stemming from 1996-2002.

When she pleaded guilty, James also admitted buying a new Jeep for $28,000 and paying $20,000 down on a new recreational vehicle between March 2004 and June 2004. She also bought furniture and a piano, but made no payments to the IRS.

She was given until March 10 to report to prison.