SADDLE RIVER — A federal judge this morning sentenced the rapper and movie actor "Ja Rule," a Saddle River resident, to 28 months in prison on three misdemeanor charges of failure to file his taxes. The sentence also required the rapper to pay back more than $1.1 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

“Ja Rule,” whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, had pleaded guilty in March to three counts of failure to file federal tax returns. Authorities said Atkins, 35, had earned more than $4 million from 2004 to 2008, but rather than file the tax returns, he asked for extensions. Authorities added that Atkins never paid the taxes even after the extensions — which he requested in four of the five years — had expired.

In court today, an emotional Atkins stood and told U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz that he was "choked up" -- and at one point he had to pause before continuing to express his contrition to the judge.

“I want to say I'm sorry," he told Judge Shwartz, as a Newark courtroom packed with summer legal interns and others watched in silence. "I in no way attempted to deceive the government.”

He added, “I was a young man who made a lot of money." And, he said, “I didn't actually know how to deal with these finances ... [and] I didn't have the best people guide me.”

But federal prosecutor Joseph G. Mack argued that Atkins' own accountant had warned him that failing to pay his taxes would be a crime. And Judge Shwartz noted the accountants' advice to Atkins, just moments before she handed down her sentence. She also said is was difficult to view Atkins as "unsophisticated."

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“He's a creative person who embarked on a very successful business,” she said.

In early June, the Grammy-nominated rapper began serving a 24-month sentence in New York state prison for the attempted possession of a weapon. He appeared in court today in a bright-yellow prison-issued jump suit. His wrists were shackled, and he had a heavy chain wrapped around his waist.

A major issue at the sentencing was whether the federal punishment would run concurrently or consecutively with Atkins' New York state prison sentence. New Jersey federal prosecutors argued today that Atkins should get a 36-month prison sentence, with 24 months of it concurrent and 12 months running consecutively. But Judge Shwartz issued a 28-month sentence, while mandating that all of it run concurrent to the New York sentence, except for the final four months.

Atkins will therefore serve at least 4 months of additional time in prison under today's federal sentence. However, the additional federal time may be longer, lawyers said, because Atkins could win early release in New York based on good behavior.

Both Atkins and his lawyer, Stacey Richman, also told Judge Shwartz that Atkins' business had been experiencing financial problems. Richman argued Atkins "does not have the financial savvy to have maintained a set aside so that his taxes would be paid.”

Atkins said: “I didn’t have the actual finances to pay off [the taxes], otherwise I would have." Still, he added, "I made mistakes," and he also said, "Things kind of spun out of control."

According to Richman, Atkins' wife, other family members and his manager were in the courtroom. At various times during the hearing, both a man and woman who appeared to be family members or business associates of Atkins ' prayed. One woman dabbed tears from her eyes with a tissue.

Atkins was subdued and often looked down at the defense table. Richman said that for the last two weeks, as he awaited today’s sentencing hearing, Atkins was held in a solitary-confinement situation for 23 hours a day at the Essex County jail. Jail officials, she said, believed such confinement was needed to protect the rapper. She repeatedly called the conditions “draconian” in court.

On the day of his guilty plea in March, Atkins had tweeted to his fans: "S/o to the Feds very cooperative it’s not tax evasion it’s failure to file and I’m taking care of it case closed. WINNING lol..." and "When u get caught wit ya hand in the cookie jar just replace the cookies lol..."

Federal authorities said in March that Atkins was the sole shareholder of ASJA Inc. and Rule Tours Inc. Authorities also said that from 2004 to 2008, Atkins received music royalty income from ASJA Inc., and music tour and live performance-related income from Rule Tours Inc.