AceShowbiz - Actor Wesley Snipes has been ordered to surrender to federal authorities immediately and begin serving his three-year sentence for tax evasion. The "Blade" star was found guilty of failing to file returns when he stood trial in 2008, but his lawyers appealed the verdict and he was freed on bail to challenge the ruling.

He lost the appeal in July and was due to surrender to police on September 2 - but a U.S. District Court judge granted him a postponement pending a retrial hearing in November. But in court on Friday, November 19, Snipes was told he must turn himself in. The actor was not present for the hearing.

In a 17-page order, obtained by The Sidney Morning Herald, U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges said, "The defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence by the Court of Appeals; and he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his present claims, during all of which he has remained at liberty. The time has come for the judgment to be enforced."