A rap artist who has been working to turn her life around allegedly owes more than $1 million in state and federal taxes reaching back to 2002.

 

Celebrity news website TMZ reported that her 2009 debt of $86,347 was recently added to the total she owes, bringing it to $1,026,862, according to documents filed with the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Office. Liens also have been filed by California, New York, and New Jersey, and last year Lil' Kim's Bentley was repossessed, according to the Community Tax Relief blog.

 

Lil' Kim's real name is Kimberly Denise Jones. In 2005, she spent a year in federal prison in Philadelphia on perjury charges related to a shooting outside a Manhattan studio. After her release, she spent three years on probation, from 2006 to 2009. Lil' Kim returned to the public spotlight in 2009 when she competed on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. 

 

A Lil' Kim representative e-mailed TMZ with the statement that she has "hired professional attorneys to handle this matter" and that "she, along with her team of legal experts, are working cooperatively and diligently with the IRS and federal authorities to amicably resolve the situation."