Comedian Carlos Mencia is first target of LA DA's tax fraud unit

Los Angeles County prosecutors on Thursday charged comedian Carlos Mencia with 12 felony tax counts, alleging he failed to report $8.7 million in personal and corporate income and making him the first defendant targeted by the district attorney's newly created Business Tax Fraud Unit.

District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said Mencia was arrested Thursday morning at his Encino home and is being held on $250,000 bail. Hochman called him "one of California's biggest tax scofflaws" and said Mencia appears on the California Franchise Tax Board's list of the state's 500 largest tax delinquents for both personal and corporate taxes.

"He is a two-category California Franchise Tax Board winner for an award you don't want as a tax delinquent," Hochman said at a news conference.

Mencia is charged with six felony counts related to personal taxes and six related to corporate tax returns. Hochman said the alleged underreporting occurred between 2019 and 2024 and resulted in about $300,000 in unpaid state taxes.

The case concerns only state taxes, and Hochman said his office had no information about Mencia's federal tax filings. People v. Mencia, 26VWCF01161 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed June 17, 2026).

The Business Tax Fraud Unit was created last month to pursue tax violations involving "millions and millions and millions of dollars every single year," Hochman said. He said he decided to establish the unit after determining that neither the district attorney's office nor the state attorney general's office regularly handled many tax prosecution cases.

Hochman said the unit will draw on tax specialists within the district attorney's office and work with the Franchise Tax Board, the Employment Development Department and the Internal Revenue Service to better "follow the money" in business tax fraud cases.

"Following the money in the way people try to hide it nowadays is a bit of an art form," he said.

Hochman also invoked the prosecution of Al Capone, noting that the mobster was ultimately brought down by a tax case rather than a murder prosecution.

"It's not lost on us that the violation that took down Al Capone way back when was not the FBI, and it wasn't a murder prosecution, it was a tax case," he said.

Hochman further referenced a monologue from Mencia's 2005-2008 Comedy Central show, "Mind of Mencia," in which the comedian said, "Maybe I'm different, but I think taxes are a good thing."

"Unfortunately, during the 2019 to 2024 period, I am guessing that Mr. Mencia thought that taxes were maybe a laughing matter, but they're not a laughing matter," Hochman said. "It's a matter of fairness, because the people who attended Mr. Mencia's shows, who paid him the money that ultimately made up his income, it generated tax obligations that he allegedly failed to report and pay."

An arraignment is expected Monday in Van Nuys.