More than two decades after winning $1 million on the debut season of Survivor, gay contestant Richard Hatch is now on the hook for millions in back taxes from his iconic reality TV win.
The 64-year-old star was first accused of tax evasion close to 25 years ago by the IRS. Now, he's being ordered to pay $3.3 million in delinquent income taxes and penalties.
Stemming from his Survivor prize winnings, Hatch was ordered to make payments for his unpaid tax liabilities for the years 2000, 2001, and 2012 by a federal judge in Providence, Rhode Island, The Boston Globe reports.
Although he is not a lawyer himself, Hatch is representing himself and has filed an appeal with the Boston-based First US Circuit Court of Appeals, after claiming for more than 20 years that he has been wrongly accused by the federal government.
"People think I’m crazy, but I’m really, really hopeful," Hatch, 64, told The Globe. "I think the appellate court will see for the first time what has really happened throughout this case."
Hatch was convicted of tax evasion in federal court in 2006 and spent more than four years in prison stemming from the IRS’s claim that he filed a false tax return for the approximately $1,428,000 he earned from Survivor, but Hatch has continued to claim innocence.
The government also placed a tax lien on properties location on 21 and 23 Annandale Road, which the IRS alleges he owned and fraudulently transferred to his sister, although Hatch has denied the claim.
Hatch told NBC 10 that he thinks he’ll "win the appeal" and that he's "waiting for the court to recognize the errors that have been made and I believe they will."
