Former NFL star Plaxico Burress charged with failure to pay taxes

Plaxico Burress is in trouble with the law again.

The former Super Bowl hero with the New York Giants was indicted last week on charges of willful failure to pay a state tax and issuing a bad check or electronic funds transfer, New Jersey prosecutors announced Thursday.

If convicted, Burress, who spent 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to violating a New York weapons law in 2009, faces up to five years in jail on each of the new charges.

Mercer County prosecutors said in a news release that Burress’ failed in an attempt to pay nearly $48,000 in state taxes for 2013 by electronic funds transfer. According to officials, Burress never responded after being notified of the problem in writing on multiple occasions, including once by a certified letter, which was returned unclaimed.

Authorities said Burress’ tax preparer was also alerted to the issue and that the 12-year wide receiver for the Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets still didn’t pay after a criminal complaint was filed in February.

The law that makes issuing a bad electronic funds transfer a criminal offense is a new one, signed just last year. Burress is the first person in New Jersey to be charged under the new law.

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