It takes ingenuity to make it in a difficult economy. Working hard to earn a buck, building up that emergency cushion for rainy days and taking care to mind your nickels and dimes is a proven recipe to stay beyond the storm. When that doesn’t quite cover it, personal loans and installment loans are a possible remedy between paydays.

You wouldn’t think that television and film stars would have as many problems with their finances, let alone resort to illegal means to make money. However, that’s just what Antwon Tanner did. Now he may be headed for jail.

They got Skills

John Marzulli of the New York Daily News reports that Tanner, who plays the character Skills on the evening soap opera “One Tree Hill,” was seen leaving federal court in Brooklyn following arraignment on an alleged Social Security number scam in which he sold fake Social Security numbers and cards.

Tanner and conspirators were caught in a police sting operation. The actor has no prior criminal record. If convicted, he would face up to five years in prison. The indictment includes two counts of fraud, as Tanner and others are alleged to have twice participated in Social Security fraud between December 2005 and July 2008.

A Social Security scam

Tanner has pled not guilty. He was released on a $250,000 bond.

Some of the Social Security numbers involved in the alleged scam had yet to be assigned, while others were traced to deceased persons or those whose numbers had been stolen. Tanner supposedly supplied 16 Social Security numbers and three bogus cards to a middleman who sold them to an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

He had a career

At the same time Tanner is alleged to have been pocketing illicit money, his career was thriving.

“It’s really sad,” said a source familiar with the investigation. “He’s got a real career.”

In addition to his work on “One Tree Hill,” Tanner, 34, once starred in a Volkswagen television commercial that became famous for the use of the song “Da Da Da.” He also played alongside Samuel L. Jackson in the 2005 film “Coach Carter.”

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