The Conservative Buckeye

Richard Hatch, who won $1 million in the first season of Survivor, was found guilty yesterday of failing to pay taxes on his winnings.He was handcuffed and taken into custody after U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres called him a potential flight risk.

He also was convicted of evading taxes on $327,000 he earned as co-host of a Boston radio show and $28,000 in rent on property he owned. He was acquitted of seven bank, mail and wire-fraud charges.

Hatch, 44, faces up to 13 years in prison and a fine of $600,000. Sentencing is scheduled for April 28.

Jurors deliberated for less than a day after more than a week of testimony.

Besides the tax charges, prosecutors accused Hatch of using money donated to his charitable foundation, Horizon Bound, an outdoors program he planned to open for troubled youth. He allegedly spent the money on expenses including tips to a limousine driver, dry cleaning and tens of thousands of dollars on improvements to a house he owned.

Hatch testified that he thought producers were supposed to pay his Survivor taxes and said the donations he took from his charity were far less than the money he had poured into it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 11:11 pm and is filed under The Boob Tube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.