A Grammy nominated recording artist, who lives in the local area, is facing up to 44 years in prison for allegedly not paying $1.7 million in taxes.

On Thursday, 46-year-old Earl Simmons of Yonkers, aka DMX, was arrested for allegedly engaging in a multi-year scheme to conceal millions of dollars of income from the IRS to avoid paying $1.7 million in taxes.

“While raking in millions from his songs, including his 2003 hit ‘X Gon’ Give it to Ya,’ DMX didn’t give any of it to the IRS,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said. “Far from it, DMX allegedly went out of his way to evade taxes.”

According to the allegations in the indictment, beginning in 1997, Simmons released a series of hip-hop albums that sold millions of records, performed at venues around the world and acted in motion pictures. As a result of the income he earned from 2002 through 2005 he incurred federal income tax liabilities of approximately $1.7 million.

Those liabilities went unpaid, and in 2005, the IRS began efforts to collect the unpaid tax liabilities.

Between 2010 through 2015, Simmons earned over $2.3 million, but didn’t file personal income tax returns, officials say.

Instead, he allegedly orchestrated a scheme to evade payment by maintaining a cash lifestyle, avoiding the use of a personal bank account and using the bank accounts of others to pay personal expenses.

On Thursday, Simmons was charged with corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of Internal Revenue Laws, evasion of payment of income taxes, six-counts of evasion of assessment of income tax liability and six-counts of failure to file a U.S. individual income tax return.

If Simmons is found guilty on all 14 counts, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 44 years.

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