Richard Hatch, who won $1-million in the debut season of the hit reality show Survivor, was found guilty on Wednesday of failing to pay taxes on his winnings and taken straight to jail.
Hatch remained calm as the court clerk read the verdict. He waved goodbye to family members, then was handcuffed and taken into custody after United States District Judge Ernest Torres said he was a potential flight risk.
The charges carry up to 13 years in prison. Torres said he expects a sentence of between 33 months and 41 months, but said the time could be longer because prosecutors say Hatch committed perjury. Sentencing was scheduled for April 28.
Hatch (44) was also 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 related to a charity, Horizon Bound, he planned to open for troubled youth.
Hatch’s lawyer, John MacDonald, said he will appeal the verdict. He said Hatch is aware of the possibility of jail time.
”Rich has been going through this now for three years and he’s prepared himself mentally and emotionally for this date,” MacDonald said.
Torres said Hatch never accounted for a significant part of his money, including the Survivor prize, which he said could be used to flee.
Near the end of the trial, an explanation for Hatch’s failure to pay taxes was raised by his lawyer — but never mentioned in the jury’s presence. Hatch’s lawyer, Michael Minns, said Hatch caught fellow contestants cheating and struck a deal with the show’s producers to pay his taxes if he won. But Hatch was never asked about the allegation when he testified.
Instead, Minns told jurors Hatch was the ”world’s worst bookkeeper” and said his client never meant to do anything wrong.
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 already poured into it.
One juror, Robert Paquette, said in a telephone interview that the jury believed Hatch had legitimate questions about who was responsible for paying his Survivor taxes. But he said Hatch crossed the line when he didn’t report income from his rental property and radio show.
”Even if you take the Survivor money out of there, there was still a lot of evidence,” Paquette said.
More than five years after winning, Hatch remains one of reality TV’s most famous villains, the man viewers loved to hate. He first captured their attention for shedding his clothes on Survivor, prompting David Letterman to nickname him ”the fat naked guy”, and became known for manipulating competitors to his advantage. — Sapa-AP