There are many advantages to being rich and famous: fabulous wealth, a life of luxury, adoring fans...

However, as these stars found out, celebrity status won't stop you from going to jail if you break the law. 

Read on to discover which famous faces have spent time behind bars for fraud or tax evasion. All dollar amounts in US dollars, unless otherwise stated. 

The late actor and comedian Richard Pryor was found guilty of tax evasion in 1974.

When asked by a judge why he’d filed his tax return, Pryor quipped, "You know, I forgot."

Fortunately, he was only sentenced to a mere 10 days behind bars in a Los Angeles County jail.

The late American music icon Chuck Berry was sentenced to four months behind bars in 1979 for income tax evasion.

In exchange for a reduced sentence, Berry pleaded guilty and paid nearly $110,000 of income tax in 1973 – that's around $769,500 (£644.6k) today. 

The so-called "Father of Rock and Roll" was imprisoned at Lompoc Prison Camp in Southern California and is said to have brought his guitar, writing materials, and two dictionaries with him for the stint behind bars.

Berry was required to complete 1,000 hours of community service upon his release, which he fulfilled by performing benefit concerts around America. 

Sophia Loren was wanted for tax evasion by Italian authorities in the 1970s, in what would become the start of a 40-year legal battle over whether or not she'd paid the correct amount on her earnings in 1974. She spent 17 days behind bars in 1982. 

The Academy Award winner maintained her innocence for decades and was finally acquitted in 2013 when the Rome-based Court of Cassation ruled that, under Italian law in 1974, her advisers rightly calculated that she owed tax on 60% of her income. Tax officials had claimed she should pay tax on 70% of her earnings.

In a 1984 interview with British broadcaster Terry Wogan, Loren opened up about her brief time in jail, noting: "It's an experience that I will never forget, and it's a traumatic experience for me. And, of course, it leaves a scar".

The late British jockey Lester Piggott was found guilty of defrauding the tax man out of £3.5 million in 1987, the equivalent of £8.9 million ($11m) in today’s money.

Piggott channelled his earnings into off-shore bank accounts in Switzerland, the Bahamas, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands to hide them from UK tax inspectors.

The record-breaking jockey was sentenced to three years in prison for his crime, of which he served one year before being released on parole.

While behind bars, Piggott was stripped of his Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) title that he'd received in 1975 for his services to horse racing.

American baseball legend Pete Rose found himself locked up in 1990 when he failed to report more than $354,000 in income tax – the equivalent of $828,000 (£689.2k) in today's money – earned from baseball memorabilia sales, autograph appearances, and gambling.

Rose was sentenced to five months in federal prison and fined $50,000, which is around $117,000 (£97.4k) today.

According to Sportscasting, the disgraced sports star later confessed: "I have no excuses because it’s all my fault. I lost my dignity, I lost my self-respect, and I almost lost a lot of dear friends".

To make matters worse, the MLB banned Rose for life over the scandal, making the all-time leader in hits ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

American businesswoman and TV personality Martha Stewart was caught insider trading in 2001. 

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), she sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock based on insider information from her Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic. The day after her sale, the value of the stock declined dramatically.

Following a six-week trial in 2004, Stewart was sentenced to five months in a federal prison in West Virginia and two years of supervised release, which included five months of electronic monitoring. Additionally, the star was fined $30,000, which is around $48,300 (£40k) today. 

"It was horrifying, and no one – no one – should have to go through that kind of indignity, really, except for murderers, and there are a few other categories", said Stewart of her time in prison during a 2017 appearance on former Today anchor Katie Couric’s podcast.

Corporate trainer Richard Hatch found fame and fortune as the first-ever winner of the US TV reality competition Survivor in 2000. 

Hatch claims he was aware that he was required to pay tax on his $1 million prize money – equivalent to $1.8 million (£1.5m) today – but he failed to file. Two years later, he was charged with ten criminal counts, including tax evasion, and found himself facing a staggering 47 years of imprisonment.

Fortunately for Hatch, he was only found guilty on two counts of tax evasion and one count of signing a fraudulent tax return. He was sentenced to a much more lenient 51 months in federal prison in 2006.

However, the reality TV star found himself back behind bars for a further nine months in 2011 after failing to amend his 2000 and 2001 tax returns. He missed out on the opportunity to appear in the live finale of The Celebrity Apprentice as a result.

American actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 after he failed to file $15 million in federal income tax returns. That's around $21.2 million (£17.5m) in today's dollars.

The Blade star appealed, but his plea was denied and he was sent to federal prison in December 2010. He was released in April 2013 after serving two and a half years of his sentence.

Reflecting on his time in prison in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper in 2020, Snipes revealed: "I hope I came out a better person". 

He added: "I came out a clearer person. Clearer on my values, clearer on my purpose, clearer about my relationship with my ancestors and the great god and the great goddess above, and clearer on what I was going to do once I had my freedom back".

In March 2011, rapper Ja Rule – real name Jeffrey Atkins – pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to file a tax return between 2004 and 2008.

The Grammy-nominated star was ordered to pay back more than $1.1 million in tax debts and IRS penalties, which is around $1.5 million (£1.2m) today.

In December 2011, Ja Rule was also sentenced to 28 months in a federal prison in New York for tax evasion, which he served concurrently with a 24-month sentence for unrelated illegal firearm possession charges. He was released two months early under house arrest.

In 2019, the musician revealed that he passed the time in prison by working out, a hobby that he continued on the outside.

"One of the reasons I do work out [is that] when you go to jail, you get a jail mentality", he explained to Page Six in 2019. "So you come out with that same thinking [as] in jail. Your mentality is, you make your whole body a weapon".

Musician Lauryn Hill found herself incarcerated in 2013 after failing to pay tax on $1.8 million of her income between 2005 and 2007 – the equivalent of $2.3 million (£1.9m) today.

The former Fugees singer spent three months in a low-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut, followed by a further three months under house arrest. She was also ordered to pay back her taxes and additional penalties by the IRS.

The Grammy-winning artist claims that she intended to pay back the money, but couldn't afford to after withdrawing from public life in order to "guarantee the safety and well-being" of herself and her family.

Rapper Fat Joe (real name Joseph Cartagena) was jailed in 2013 for failing to file income tax returns on over $3.3 million of earnings from performances and music royalties. That's the equivalent of $4.3 million (£3.5m) today. 

The hip-hop artist was sentenced to four months in prison and was fined $15,000, which is around $19,400 (£16k) today. 

In a recent interview on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk, Fat Joe described prison as "rusty and ugly, like one of those Harry Potter movies".

He also revealed that his friend Lil Wayne gave him some advice on surviving prison. "Just be humble, bro. If you'll be humble, they'll respect you," the Lollipop rapper, who went to jail himself in 2010, reportedly advised.

Joe and Teresa Giudice were convicted on charges of mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud in October 2014. The couple – who would go on to split up in 2019 – were sentenced to 41 months and 15 months, respectively.

In 2013, The Real Housewives of New Jersey stars were accused of hiding their fortune in a bankruptcy filing, while Joe was additionally charged with failing to file tax returns between 2004 and 2008. The couple made matters worse by hiding $75,000 – or $95,500 (£78.9k) today – worth of assets from the court when asked to complete probation reports.

Having started serving his prison sentence in March 2016, Joe Giudice was later deported to his home country of Italy in October 2018. 

Meanwhile, Teresa served just under a year of her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. In an interview with Good Morning America, she described her time in prison as "living in hell".

American reality TV star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino served eight months in prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

His brother Marc Sorrentino also pleaded guilty to aiding in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns.

The duo were accused of hiding and failing to pay taxes on $8.9 million – or around $11.7 million (£9.6m) in today’s money – earned by Sorrentino between 2010 and 2012 by creating fake companies that secretly paid expenses and hid income.

"I definitely feel like I’m a changed man", the Jersey Shore alum told Entertainment Tonight upon his release. "Our main goal throughout the whole process was to handle it with grace and class. Not only for ourselves but to show the young generation out there how to handle adversity and move forward and continue to be the best, even if you make mistakes".

Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison on fraud and conspiracy charges in 2019 after she paid a proctor to correct her daughter’s SAT answers.

The Desperate Housewives star was one of 52 people charged in the "college admissions scandal", which came to light in 2019 and saw dozens of rich parents try to cheat their children into Ivy League schools.

With the help of college admission consultant William Singer, Huffman paid $15,000 – the equivalent of $18,900 (£15.6k) today – to boost her daughter’s SAT scores in 2016.

At her sentencing, Huffman, who pleaded guilty, said: "I would like to apologise again to my daughter, my husband, my family, and the educational community for my actions. And I especially want to apologise to the students who work hard every day to get into college and to their parents, who make tremendous sacrifices supporting their children".

Another celebrity entangled in the college admissions scandal was Lori Loughlin. Arguably the most famous face to be involved, the actress spent two months in federal prison in California in 2020.

The Full House star pleaded guilty to paying $500,000 (£406k) to William Singer and a University of Southern California (USC) athletics official to gain her two daughters' admission into USC. 

Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He was sentenced to five months behind bars, among other penalties. 

"I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process," Loughlin said at her sentencing. "In doing so, I ignored my intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass. I thought I was acting out of love for my children. But in reality, it only undermined and diminished my daughters' abilities and accomplishments". Loughlin is pictured here with her daughter Olivia Jade.

Tennis legend Boris Becker was sentenced to 30 months in prison in April 2022. He was found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act relating to his 2017 bankruptcy.

The six-time Grand Slam champion was declared bankrupt in 2017 after owing lenders almost £50 million, which amounts to around £62.4 million ($75.5m) when adjusted for inflation.

Becker concealed £2.5 million ($3m) in assets and loans after declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying his debts. Among the items he hid were his 1985 Wimbledon men’s singles titles, his Australian Open trophies from 1991 and 1996, and his Olympic gold medal from 1992.

The former tennis ace was released in December 2022 after serving eight months at Huntercombe Prison in Oxford, England, where he reportedly educated his fellow inmates on topics including fitness, nutrition, and crisis management.

Reality TV husband-and-wife duo Todd and Julie Chrisley reported to prison in January after being found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion. 

The Chrisley Knows Best stars, who maintain their innocence, were convicted of taking out $30 million (£24.8m) in fraudulent bank loans. They were sentenced to a combined total of 19 years, with Todd sentenced to 12 years behind bars and Julie to seven.

Meanwhile, their accountant, Peter Tarantino, will also serve three years for conspiracy to defraud the IRS and filing false tax returns.

Todd and Julie are now appealing their convictions and recently hired a new lawyer who specialises in white-collar crime, Jay Surgent, to handle their case. 

Now take a look at the rich and famous people who went bankrupt 

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah was sentenced to six and a half years in prison this January after being found guilty of telemarketing fraud.

The telemarketing scheme she was involved in affected hundreds of people, many of whom were elderly.

The reality star pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2022 and reported to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas on February 17.

In a statement to the judge, Shah wrote, "The terrible business decisions I made and professional relationships I developed stemmed from some personal painful experiences that I was going through in my life."