Prosecutors arrested comedian Carlos Mencia on Thursday and charged him with 12 felonies for failing to report or pay taxes on more than $8 million in earnings.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges at a news conference, calling Mencia “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws.”
Prosecutors charged the 58-year-old stand-up comic with six felony counts of failing to file personal income tax with intent to evade taxes — one for each year from 2019 to 2024 — along with six similar counts covering corporate taxes.
Hochman said Mencia owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7 million.
Mencia has not entered a plea, and his attorney did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Authorities arrested Mencia at his Los Angeles home at about 7 a.m. He remained in custody Thursday afternoon, held on $250,000 bail, and is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday. A conviction on all counts could bring him more than 11 years in prison, in addition to the tax bills and interest, which will nearly double the total amount owed.
These charges mark the first filed under the district attorney’s new Business Tax Fraud Unit, which Hochman established in May after spending years as a prosecutor of tax cases.
Hochman said Mencia paid his taxes regularly before 2019. The state sent him 78 notices about his delinquent bills, and he never responded. The current charges address only state taxes, and Hochman said the IRS has not informed his office of Mencia’s federal tax status.
Mencia, born Ned Arnel Holness in Honduras and raised in East Los Angeles, began performing stand-up in LA clubs in the late 1980s. By the early 2000s, he had become one of the most popular comics in the U.S. and branched into film and television acting. He starred in his own series, “Mind of Mencia,” which blended stand-up with sketches on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2008.
Hochman noted at the news conference that Mencia said on the show in 2007, “Maybe I’m different, but I think taxes are a good thing.”
His comedy focused largely on race, class and Latino culture. His career later took a downward turn after many fellow comedians accused him of joke theft, accusations he always denied. Joe Rogan, then best known as a stand-up comic, confronted him about the issue on a club stage in a video that went viral in 2007. Mencia discussed the alleged plagiarism at length on Marc Maron’s podcast, acknowledging he may have absorbed others’ material but denying outright theft.
He continues to perform regular stand-up shows at clubs and small theaters and has a series of dates scheduled in Southern California this week and Las Vegas next week.
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