Comedian Carlos Mencia has been charged with 12 felony tax counts, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Thursday.
Prosecutors allege Mencia, 58, failed to file personal and corporate tax returns over a six-year period and did not report about $8.7 million in income, resulting in more than $300,000 in unpaid state taxes.
The case is the first brought by the district attorney’s newly launched Business Tax Fraud Unit.
At a news conference Thursday, Hochman described Mencia as “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws” and said the comedian appears on the California Franchise Tax Board’s list of the state’s 500 largest tax delinquents in both personal and corporate income tax categories.
According to prosecutors, Mencia is charged with six felony counts related to personal income tax returns and six felony counts related to corporate tax returns. Authorities allege he failed to report both corporate and personal income between 2019 and 2024.
Hochman said the California Franchise Tax Board sent Mencia 78 notices regarding his tax obligations during that period, but he allegedly did not respond to any of them.
Prosecutors allege approximately $5.4 million of the unreported income was tied to Mencia’s company.
Authorities arrested Mencia on Thursday, and he remained in custody following the announcement. Bail was set at $250,000. Prosecutors said he is expected to be arraigned Monday in Van Nuys.
If convicted on all counts, Mencia could face more than 10 years in state prison, according to prosecutors. He could also be ordered to repay the taxes owed, along with interest and potential civil penalties.
ABC News has reached out to a public relations representative for Mencia.

Curry Barker has found a home for his next horror feature, reuniting with Universal Film Group and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.
The Obsession auteur will write, direct and produce his third film for the banners, following his $297M breakout horror hit—which is still on a box office hot streak—and his upcoming supernatural title Anything But Ghosts, which he wrote, directed and also stars in alongside Aaron Paul, Bryce Dallas Howard and Violet McGraw.
While plot details are currently being kept under wraps, the film is based on an original idea pitched by Barker.
“This film is something I’ve been excited to make for a while, and I’m thrilled to be re-teaming with Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Universal Film Group for it,” said Barker. “They’ve built the kind of home for bold, original storytelling that every filmmaker dreams of, and I couldn’t imagine better collaborators for this film.”
NBCUniversal Entertainment Chairman Donna Langley praised Barker’s “exceptional ability to tap into the cultural zeitgeist, pairing an innate instinct for what resonates with audiences with extraordinary filmmaking prowess. Barker’s talent is redefining what’s possible and we’re thrilled to continue our partnership with him.”
Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Jason Blum said they’re “proud to have a growing slate with Curry. Getting to put this project in front of the fans his work speaks to is the whole reason we do this.”
The project is produced by Roy Lee and Steven Schneider’s Spooky Pictures and Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath’ Divide/Conquer. It will be distributed worldwide by Universal Film Group.
Barker is repped by Underground, United Talent Agency, The Lede Company and Yorn Levine.

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks took a swing out of left field Thursday to poke fun at MS NOW while appearing live on the network.
MS NOW correspondent Jacob Soboroff was reporting live from the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, where some of the biggest names in politics and entertainment gathered to launch the opening of former President Barack Obama’s library and museum.
Soboroff eyed the “Forrest Gump” star, who was busy hobnobbing with other attendees but eventually offered his time to the reporter.
“What can I do for the 800 people watching MSNOW?” Hanks asked Soboroff.
“Alright, add a zero if you need to,” Hanks then quipped.
Soboroff took the joke in stride, responding, “I would say millions now that you’re on our air.”
After the two discussed the Obama Presidential Center, Soboroff thanked Hanks for “adding the zero to our ratings today.”
“I gotta tell ya, I can hear the clicks happening before my very eyes,” Hanks joked before walking away.
Soboroff then turned to MS NOW anchor Katy Tur, appearing amused by the exchange.
“Alright, thanks Tom. Appreciate that,” Tur reacted with a grin.
“He has been very supportive of the press, at least in the past,” Tur jokingly added before referencing Hanks’ donated coffee machine to White House reporters in 2017.
A representative for MS NOW declined to comment.
Hanks cheekily undercounted MS NOW’s viewership, which averaged 691,000 total day viewers and 1.1 million primetime viewers in the first quarter of 2026.
The liberal network, however, trailed behind Fox News Channel’s 1.7 million average total day viewers and 2.6 million primetime viewers during the same period.

This is per Variety, which notes that Hollywood’s sixth-on-average favorite Chris has signed on with nonpartisan creative media studio ATTN:, for a series that will pair him up with Goodwin in order to “engage international audiences with America’s constitutional values and history through modern digital storytelling.” Which sounds, in practice, like it’ll involve Pratt steering into his cheerful dope public persona, only for Goodwin to correct him on misconceptions about American history. The series, produced by Veep and The Studio‘s Alex Gregory, will reportedly blend live-action and animation, and is being partially funded with the tiny amount of cash still flowing from the federal funding spigot at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Public Diplomacy and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. (The idea being, apparently, that foreign audiences will learn to love constitutional democracy through the lens of the planet’s third-most-beloved Garfield actor.) (In our minds, those same foreign audiences are serious Lorenzo Music partisans.)
According to press materials, each episode of the series “explores a defining constitutional value through the story of a pivotal historical figure or happening,” and will “pair Pratt’s curiosity and humor with Goodwin’s historical expertise and fact-checking to highlight America’s founding ideals.” Which actually sounds like it could be pretty fun—once you brush aside the entire flag convention’s worth of red flags surrounding this particular pairing of artist and subject.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to Dungeon Crawler Carl, a live-action series adaptation of Matt Dinniman’s popular science fantasy LitRPG (role-playing game) books. The project, which had been in development at the streamer, comes from Seth MacFarlane‘s Fuzzy Door and Universal Global Television where the company is based. Dinniman, who serves as co-executive producer on the series, announced the pickup on social media.
In Dungeon Crawler Carl, written for television by film, TV and comic book writer Chris Yost, an alien invasion has wiped out most of humanity and any survivors are forced to fight for their lives on a sadistic intergalactic game show. Sounds bad, right? Now try doing it with bare feet and a stuck-up, self-centered, tiara-wearing talking cat as your partner. Welcome to Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, where the apocalypse will be televised … and Coast Guard vet Carl finds himself stuck with his ex-girlfriend’s award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, as they try to survive the end of the world, fighting monsters, aliens, an insane A.I. and even other survivors … all for the sake of good TV. Survival is optional. Entertainment is not.
Yost executive produces alongside Fuzzy Door’s MacFarlane, Erica Huggins and Rachel Hargreaves-Heald.
“Me, Chris Yost and Seth MacFarlane and his team at Fuzzy Door are all really excited to get to work,” Dinniman wrote. “In the coming weeks I’ll have more details, and if you’re going to SDCC be sure to catch me and Chris on our DCC panel.”
The series pickup caps a wild seven-year journey for Dungeon Crawler Carl, which originated in 2019 with vignettes Dinniman self-published on a digital platform as a hobby while not busy with his main job as a sketch artist at cat shows.