Carlos Mencia is set to face criminal charges in the first case brought by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s newly created Business Tax Fraud Unit, a move that gives the young unit its first public test. The comedian and actor, whose legal name is Ned Arnel Mencia, was identified by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office ahead of a planned announcement Thursday.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman was scheduled to announce the charges at a 2 p.m. news conference at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles, with the office saying the event would stream live on its social media platforms. Officials had not yet disclosed the nature of the charges, and no additional information was immediately available Thursday morning.
Mencia is not new to tax trouble. In 2021, reports indicated that the Internal Revenue Service filed liens against three properties he owned in Georgia over more than $1 million in unpaid federal income taxes. That history helps explain why his name surfaced quickly as the district attorney prepared to unveil the first case from a unit built to pursue tax-related crimes involving businesses.
The unresolved part is the charge itself. The office said Mencia was the defendant in the first case brought by the Business Tax Fraud Unit, but it stopped short of saying what crime prosecutors believe he committed. Until Hochman names the count, Thursday’s announcement is less a finished case than the opening move in what the office appears to see as a broader enforcement effort.
For Mencia, the timing matters because the public explanation was set for Thursday afternoon, not later in the week or after a court filing. For the district attorney’s office, the case matters because the first prosecution from a newly created unit will show how aggressively it intends to use that team against tax violations tied to business activity.
