Jersey Shore’s Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has been released from prison after serving eight months for tax evasion.
The reality star walked free from the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York on Thursday.
Sorrentino, 37, and his brother pleaded guilty last year to tax offenses related to nearly $9 million in income. Marc Sorrentino was sentenced to two years.
He was engaged at the time to his college sweetheart Lauren Pesce, and they married on November 1 before he surrendered to police in mid-January.
At his sentencing last fall, The Situation told the judge that he was trying to overcome years of drug and alcohol abuse.
The Situation appeared on all six original seasons of the reality show from 2009 to 2012, chronicling the lives of rowdy housemates in the town of Seaside Heights.
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino pictured in 2018. The reality star was scheduled to be released from prison in Otisville, New York, on Thursday. He and brother pleaded guilty last year to tax offenses related to nearly $9 million in income
Mike married college sweetheart Lauren Pesce on November 1 before he surrendered to police in mid-January. He tweeted Thursday: ‘Turn up we free !!! #freesitch’
Sorrentino told DailyMail.com: ‘We are elated to finally close this chapter of our life. Thank you to our family, friends and fans for the continuous love and support during this time, it brought us so much peace and comfort.
‘We look forward to continuing our life as husband and wife and working on baby situations!’
‘We truly believe that the comeback is ALWAYS greater than the setback and we can’t wait to show the world ours.’
He later tweeted: ‘Turn up we free !!! #freesitch.’
He apparently rubbed shoulders at the Federal Correctional Facility Otisville with his fellow fraudster, Fyre Festival impresario Billy McFarland.
The dynamic duo settle down for games of scrabble with hacker George Garofano, whose work led to the leak of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton’s nude photos.
His Jersey Shore co-star Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi told E! News in April that Mike was ‘having the time of his life’ while in prison.
‘Snooki’ explained that she and the rest of the cast are able to keep in touch with him electronically and that the reality star is making the most of it with activities and getting himself back into shape.
She said: ‘It’s like his in a senior home, he’s playing Bingo, he’s helping people recover in jail.
‘We all talk to him through an email, so I talk to him like once a week. He’s in the gym a lot, so he’s probably gonna come out ripped. You know, he’s not gonna be BDS anymore–Big Daddy Sitch–he’s gonna have his, probably, six-pack again. But he’s doing…he’s doing good in there.’
‘We look forward to continuing our life as husband and wife and working on baby situations!’, the reality star said in a statement following his release
Mike’s wife Lauren tweeted this image to her Twitter account following her husband’s release
‘The Situation’ leaves federal court with his now wife Lauren after his sentencing in Newark, in October last year. Sorrentino pleaded guilty to tax evasion in January, and was sentenced Friday to eight months in prison
Mike began his eight-month prison sentence for tax fraud in January. He shared this Instagram photo wearing a ‘#FreeSitch’ T-shirt on Tuesday before turning himself in
The Sorrentino brothers were indicted originally for tax offenses in September 2014 but had received additional charges in April 2017.
They were both charged in 2014 with tax offenses relating to nearly $9million income.
Marc had pleaded guilty to aiding in the preparation of a false and fraudulent tax return. He is serving a 24-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey.
Both the brothers appeared in New Jersey federal court in October 2018 as they were sentenced.
Tough times: Mike’s brother Marc Sorrentino reported to prison for his two year sentence just days after the reality star had, as they are pictured together in August 2011
Prior to going to prison, ‘The Situation’ was transparent about his jail time with his fans on social media and even shared a mailing address urging his friends, family and followers to write him while he’s behind bars.
He also shared a final Instagram of himself wearing a T-shirt he sells on his online store that bears the phrase ‘#FreeSitch’.
‘See you guys on the other side,’ he wrote to his 1.8million followers.
He also shared an Instagram live on his way to the prison where he looked sad but tried to joke and smile for his fans as his wife films him and asks him questions.
Sorrentino pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion in January 2018 for not fully paying the amount of taxes he owed for 2011.
In October he was sentenced to eight months in custody for tax evasion in addition to two years of supervised probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $10,000 penalty in connection with his guilty plea.
Much of their fortune was made on club and TV appearances, cashing in on Sorrentino’s TV fame.
Sorrentino was supposed to be sentenced in April of last year. In the months that his sentencing was delayed he married Lauren Pesce, 34, in November 1.