Ja Rule Held After Prison Release

Ja Rule was recently freed from a New York state prison after serving most of a two-year sentence on an illegal gun possession charge, but his troubles with the law are far from over.

The rapper was immediately taken into federal custody for tax evasion. An attorney for Ja Rule reportedly said he has less than six months left on a 28-month sentence related to the tax case, which he’d been serving concurrently, and may be eligible for a halfway house.

Ja Rule pleaded guilty to the gun charge in 2010 after officers found a loaded semiautomatic gun in his car when he was pulled over for speeding. The following year, he admitted he’d failed to pay more than $3 million in taxes between 2004 and 2006.

“I in no way attempted to deceive the government or do anything illegal,” he said in court. “I was a young man who made a lot of money – I’m getting a little choked up – I didn’t know how to deal with those finances, and I didn’t have people to guide me, so I made mistakes.”

He has been ordered to pay $1.1 million in back taxes.