CALIFORNIA—On June 18, Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, held a press conference announcing his office filed 12 felony counts of tax evasion against comedian, writer, and actor Carlos Mencia, 58, for failing to pay taxes and committing tax fraud.
Mencia was born in Honduras as Ned Arnel Holness, and immigrated to the United States as a child, and grew up in East Los Angeles. He has 17 siblings. He is best known for the show “Mind of Mencia,” which he hosted on Comedy Central that aired from July 2025 to July 2008. Between 2001 and 2011, he released multiple comedy albums and DVDs of comedy specials he performed. At current, he hosts a podcast, “Between the Laughs.”
He was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department around 7 a.m. on June 18 at his home. Those charges include six counts of failing to pay personal income tax with intent to evade, and six counts of failing to pay corporate income tax with intent to evade.
Charges span from 2019 to 2024, where Mencia is accused of failing to pay approximately $8.7 million in personal and corporate taxes to the state of California. A total of $3.3 million is personal income tax, and $5.4 million is corporate tax for his business, Nedlos Entertainment Inc., for which he is the owner and chief executive officer.
Mencia is listed on the California Franchise Tax Board’s list of the top 500 tax delinquents. The board also sent him 78 notifications informing him he did not pay his taxes.
He is in custody, and the court set his bail at $250,000. An arraignment hearing has been scheduled for June 22 and will be held in the felony arraignment court, Department 100, of the Van Nuys Courthouse.
If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 11 years and 4 months in a California state prison and will be required to pay his back taxes, along with interest and possible civil penalties.
This is the first case brought by the Business Tax Fraud Unit, established in May 2026 to prosecute tax-related offenses. Mencia faced legal trouble with the Internal Revenue Service in 2021, where he claimed that he and his wife, Amy, owed over $1.2 million in back taxes.
