Former Clifton Park rap star guilty of tax fraud

Once the front man of the hit-making hip-hop trio 3rd Bass, the rapper known as Prime Minster Pete Nice ended up in Albany County Court on Tuesday, admitting that he failed to pay three years of income taxes to the state.

Peter J. Nash, 47, of Clifton Park, admitted to one misdemeanor count of fifth-degree criminal tax fraud, for having failed to pay state income taxes from 2009 through 2011. Nash, who is now a published baseball historian, faces up to three years’ probation when sentenced Aug. 26 and was ordered to repay $13,101 to the state, plus penalties and interest.

He was originally indicted on a felony charge of repeated failure to file income taxes, which could have landed him up to three years in prison.

Cecelia Logue, a spokeswoman for the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, said Nash didn’t give any explanation why he didn’t pay taxes to the state for such a prolonged period of time — something that was noticed by state Department of Taxation and Finance auditors during a routine examination.

Nash resides in Saratoga County. The case was handled in Albany County because the Tax Department is located in Albany.

A quarter century ago, 3rd Bass drew attention for being a rap group that was two-thirds white. Two of its albums went gold, and the single “Pop Goes the Weasel” reached the top of Billboard’s rap chart. The trio split up in 1992 and reunited briefly before calling it quits in 2000.

Nash later opened a baseball memorabilia store in Cooperstown and authored the books “Baseball Legends of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery” and “Boston’s Royal Rooters.”

Nash operates the website www.haulsofshame, which is dedicated to probing the dark side of baseball memorabilia.

In 2012, the Daily News reported Nash admitted that he failed to file tax returns in Manhattan.

Neither Nash’s rap career nor later calling as a baseball historian came up in court Tuesday.

Logue said the proceedings were pedestrian.

“It was handled very much in a routine manner,” she said.