Dominic Timms
Friday January 21, 2005
The winner of one of TV's first reality shows was today facing a 10-year jail term after failing to declare his winnings to the taxman.
Richard Hatch, the first winner of Survivor in the US, could be hit with a long prison sentence and a £500,000 fine after pleading guilty to evading tax on his $1m-plus reality show winnings.
The 39-year-old winner, who runs his own corporate training business, was charged by the US attorney's office in Providence, Rhode Island, with two counts of tax evasion after he failed to divulge his seven-figure win and a subsequent $10,000 CBS paid him to appear on a winners special.
The former supermarket manager and bartender also pleaded guilty to tax evasion after he failed to report payments of $321,000 he received from a Boston radio station.
"In November 2002, Hatch filed a false personal income tax return for the 2000 tax year by failing to report the $1,010,000 paid to him by Survivor Entertainment Group," the US attorney's office said in a statement.
Mr Hatch, who once worked as a driver for Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, one-time owners of legendary New York club Studio 54, will be sentenced on Monday.
In the light of his guilty plea and the fact that his tax evasion "did not involve sophisticated means", the attorney's office indicated he could expect punishment at the lower end of the scale.
"The government will recommend that the court impose a term of imprisonment at the lowest point of the range of sentences," the statement said.
Even so, the Survivor winner, who beat 15 other contestants to win the show's inaugural prize after walking around naked most of the time, still faces a $250,000 fine and up to five years in jail for each count.
While the US tax authorities view winnings from TV shows as a legitimate target, in the UK prize money from so-called "one-off" events is tax free.
"Money won through one-off events such as the National Lottery or Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Is tax free, no matter how much you win," said a spokesman for the Inland Revenue.
"If you then use that fame to become a minor celebrity and start opening supermarkets and selling your story to the Sun then that's no longer a one-off event."
MediaGuardian
