Ex-Fugees star Lauryn Hill begins tax-evasion jail term

Grammy-winning singer said to have reported to federal prison for three-month sentence

Lauryn Hill gives a performance in 2005. Photograph: Scott Gries/Getty Images/AFP
Lauryn Hill gives a performance in 2005. Photograph: Scott Gries/Getty Images/AFP

US music star Lauryn Hill has started a three-month prison sentence for failing to pay about $1 million in taxes over the past decade.

Ed Ross, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons, says the Grammy-winning singer reported to the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

Ms Hill started singing with the Fugees as a teenager in the 1990s before releasing her multi-platinum 1998 album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.

She pleaded guilty last year in New Jersey to failing to pay taxes on more than $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007.

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Ms Hill, of South Orange, New Jersey, resident had faced a maximum sentence of one year each on three counts of failing to file taxes.

Her lawyer had sought probation, arguing that Ms Hill’s charitable works, her family circumstances and the fact she paid back the taxes she owed should merit consideration.

PA