Richard Hatch, the first ever million dollar winner on
Survivor, is making one last gasp effort to get out of his 2006 tax-evasion conviction. Nearly half way through his four-year prison sentence, Hatch and his lawyers are appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. While experts agree that the chances of the Supreme Court even hearing Hatch's case are slim, Hatch's lawyer's are optimistic. Hatch was convicted in 2006 after it was found that he had not paid taxes on any of his reality winnings, or much of his subsequent income he made post-
Survivor. While Hatch continues to maintain that he had a deal with
Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett that Burnett reneged on, the jury and the judge did not see it that way, and sentenced Hatch to 51 months in prison. Hatch is currently serving his sentence in a minimum-security prison in West Virginia.
Your Take
MegganKofCali said:
I love this article Oscar, one of your best! I mean you hit it so on the head, when the bills are sitting ...
Kenshin said:
why he is complaining about?
a million dolars is a lot of money, so if he has to pay the taxes, i think th...
gusgus said:
Just because he won Survivor doesn't mean he's a genius. I don't understand how he didn't know that he wou...
Richard Hatch is not a dumb man. I know this because I watched the first season of Survivor, and witnessed a man who manipulated and out-smarted others, and as a result won a million dollars. This is why Hatch's whole situation is difficult to understand. Hatch's lawyers have made the assertion over and over again that Hatch is, simply, a terrible bookkeeper and that the fact he didn't pay taxes was an innocent oversight. But, that's not even their main argument. Hatch has also alleged that, in the middle of filming the first season of Survivor, Hatch witnessed one of his fellow castaways receive food from a CBS/Survivor employee. He says that, after this, he got into an argument with Mark Burnett and came to an agreement: Hatch would forget what he saw and, in return, Burnett and CBS would pay for all his taxes on his prize money, if he were to win.
Still, I don't get it. Did Hatch think that CBS would magically take care of those taxes, even when he had the bills in front of him? I refuse to believe that Hatch did this on accident. Maybe he'll shine some more light on the issue himself; it is being reported that he's writing a book while in prison. The subject: how he's been abused by the legal system. Whether he's telling the truth or not, he's been exceedingly adamant in maintaining his innocence.
Hatch will, if the appeal doesn't go through, be released from prison in October of 2009.
Better Richard competitor?
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: E! Online
(Image Courtesy of MSN)