Comedian Carlos Mencia faces 12 felony charges for failing to report
more than $8M in earnings
[June 19, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comedian Carlos Mencia was arrested Thursday and
charged with 12 felony charges for failing to report or pay taxes on
more than $8 million in earnings, prosecutors said.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the
charges at a news conference where he called Mencia “one of California’s
biggest tax scofflaws.”
The 58-year-old stand-up comic was charged with six felony counts of
failure to file personal income tax with the intent to evade taxes — one
each for the years 2019 to 2024 — and six similar counts for corporate
taxes.
Mencia owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7
million, Hochman said.
He has not entered a plea, and emails sent to his attorney seeking
comment was not immediately answered.
Mencia was arrested at his Los Angeles home at about 7 a.m., authorities
said. He remained in custody Thursday afternoon and was being held on
$250,000 bail. He is expected to make his first court appearance on
Monday. If he’s convicted of all counts he could get more than 11 years
in prison, along with paying the tax bills and interest that will almost
double the total.
The charges are the first filed under the new district attorney's new
Business Tax Fraud Unit that was established in May by Hochman, a former
longtime prosecutor of tax cases.
Mencia regularly paid taxes before 2019, Hochman said. He was sent 78
notices from the state about his delinquent bills, with no response. The
charges deal only with state taxes. Hochman said the IRS has not
informed his office of Mencia's federal tax status.
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Actor and comedian Carlos Mencia arrives at the 23rd Annual Imagen
Awards, Aug. 21, 2008, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas,
File)
 Born Ned Arnel Holness in Honduras
and raised in East Los Angeles, Mencia began doing stand-up in LA
clubs in the late 1980s. By the early 2000s, he became one of the
most popular comics in the U.S. and also did some acting in film and
television. He had his own TV series, “Mind of Mencia,” combining
stand-up with sketches on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2008.
Hochman pointed out at the news conference that on
the show in 2007, Mencia said, “Maybe I'm different, but I think
taxes are a good thing.”
His comedy most often dealt with race, class and Latino culture. His
career took a downward turn as he was hit with accusations from many
fellow comedians of joke theft, which he always denied, from other
comics. Joe Rogan, then best known as a stand-up comic, confronted
him on a club stage on the issue in a video that went viral in 2007.
Mencia had long discussions on Marc Maron's podcast on the alleged
plagiarism, acknowledging that he may have absorbed others' material
but denying outright theft.
He still does regular stand-up shows, touring clubs and small
theaters. He's scheduled to do a series of dates in Southern
California this week and Las Vegas next week.
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