‘Jersey Shore’ star Sorrentino sentenced to eight months for tax evasion

By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) – Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, star of the reality television show “The Jersey Shore,” was sentenced to eight months in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

Prosecutors said Sorrentino, 37, and his brother, Marc Sorrentino, 39, who was sentenced to two years, had hidden millions of dollars Mike made from the MTV series “Jersey Shore.”

The brothers appeared in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, accompanied by several “Jersey Shore” cast members, according to local media reports.

“Michael accepts the court’s judgment,” his lawyer Henry Klingeman said in an email. “He is looking forward to marrying his college sweetheart, Lauren Pesce, next month, and moving forward together after he serves his sentence.”

A lawyer for Marc Sorrentino could not immediately be reached for comment.

Prosecutors charged the Sorrentinos in 2014 with trying to avoid taxes on $8.9 million of Mike’s income from 2010 to 2012, including by trying to classify purchases of clothes, vehicles and other personal items as business expenses.

Both Sorrentinos had pleaded guilty in January.

“The Jersey Shore” ran from 2009 to 2012 and featured young Italian-Americans partying, tanning and complaining about their jobs at a beachfront T-shirt stand.

Mike Sorrentino popularized the phrase “gym, tan, laundry” to describe the pre-party routine of cast members.

Many of the cast members, including Sorrentino, returned to MTV this year in a new show, “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” set in Miami.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Bill Trott)