Charges against TV star include swindle in Eugene.Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard Reality TV star Richard Hatch Richard Hatch is a name used by the following people:
Rhode Island, island, 15 mi (24 km) long and 5 mi (8 km) wide, S R.I., at the entrance to Narragansett Bay. It is the largest island in the state, with steep cliffs and excellent beaches. federal courtroom today to answer fraud and income tax evasion The process whereby a person, through commission of Fraud, unlawfully pays less tax than the law mandates. Tax evasion is a criminal offense under federal and state statutes. A person who is convicted is subject to a prison sentence, a fine, or both. charges, including allegedly using $25,000 in charitable contributions charitable contribution n. in taxation, a contribution to an organization which is officially created for charitable, religious, educational, scientific, artistic, literary, or other good works. from Eugene's Chambers Communications for personal expenses. Hatch has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. If convicted, he could face jail time and steep fines. The former "Survivor" star, who became known to many as "the naked fat guy" after frequently appearing in the buff on the reality game show, also is accused of failing to pay taxes on the $1 million grand prize he won. He also allegedly failed to pay taxes on other income and prizes, including a $27,074 Pontiac Aztec awarded to him on the show and $326,540 in earnings from a Boston radio show, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a 10-count government indictment. Hatch's trial began on Thursday with his lawyer arguing that Hatch was not a willful tax evader who fraudulently used charitable funds but rather the "world's worst bookkeeper," the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. reported. Among the government's first witnesses was "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July, 1960) is a British-American television producer. He is known for introducing reality television as a genre to the USA. He produced the USA version of the series Survivor and the Eco-Challenge. , who testified that Hatch signed an agreement to take responsibility for paying all taxes on his winnings. The following day's testimony focused on Hatch's allegedly fraudulent use of charitable donations to cover his own personal expenses. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Reich called eight prosecution witnesses, according to The Providence Journal newspaper. The lineup included bank officials and a former partner of Hatch's familiar with the Horizon Bound project, an outdoor adventure program for troubled youth that went out of business and was revived by Hatch. Hatch's allegedly fraudulent use of his charitable organization This article is about charitable organizations. For other uses of the word charity, see Charity. A charitable organization (also known as a charity) is an organization with charitable purposes only. involved a 2000 trip he made to the Chambers Media Center in Eugene to appear on the pilot episode of a TV show, `For Goodness Sake!,' which never made it on the air. In exchange for Hatch's appearance on the show, which highlighted worthy causes in each episode, Chambers agreed to donate $25,000 to Horizon Bound. According to the government indictment, Hatch altered the check from Chambers to include his own name, then deposited the money in a personal bank account. None of the money was used for charitable purposes, the indictment alleges. Hatch is also charged with failing to declare the money on income tax forms and failing to register Horizon Bound as a tax-exempt charitable organi- zation. The indictment also details Hatch's alleged attempts to avoid paying income tax on his "Survivor" winnings. In 2000, the year Hatch won the grand prize on the show, he reported a taxable income Under the federal tax law, gross income reduced by adjustments and allowable deductions. It is the income against which tax rates are applied to compute an individual or entity's tax liability. The essence of taxable income is the accrual of some gain, profit, or benefit to a taxpayer. of $41,087 and sought a refund of $4,483. According to the indictment, Hatch earned $1,053,708 that year and, according to a Newport, R.I. accounting firm, Hatch owed the government $441,501 in taxes. Officials with Chambers Communications could not be reached for comment on the trial, which is scheduled to continue through this week in Providence, R.I. The trial follows a nonbinding agreement reached last January in which Hatch agreed to plead guilty to two counts of tax evasion in exchange for sentencing leniency le·ni·en·cy n. pl. le·ni·en·cies 1. The condition or quality of being lenient. See Synonyms at mercy. 2. A lenient act. Noun 1. . Hatch reneged on the agreement, according to the Associated Press, and the government responded by adding eight additional counts to the indictment including mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud. He now faces a maximum of 75 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines if he is convicted on all counts, the AP reported. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion