Celebrity Justice, Tax Edition

Snipes wins and loses; Hatch just loses

By Kaye A. Thomas
Posted February 4, 2008

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Hatch not a big enough celebrity?

The jury has returned a verdict in the tax crimes trial of movie star Wesley Snipes, best known for the Blade movies and White Men Can't Jump, although perhaps best loved for playing Noxeema Jackson in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Headlines in some papers said "Snipes Convicted" and in others, "Snipes Acquitted." Both were true.

The bigger story is that he was convicted of serious crimes. He escaped conviction on felony charges that could have placed him behind bars for ten years, but still faces as many as three years in prison. With a sentence of that magnitude looming, a headline indicating he was acquitted seems generous. But hey, he's a major celebrity.

His less famous co-defendants were less fortunate. They were convicted of tax fraud, a felony.

Immunity not up for grabs

Also less fortunate was Richard Hatch of Survivor fame, whose conviction for filing false tax returns was upheld in a decision dated February 1. Hatch won $1,000,000 after convincing a "jury" of fellow Survivor castaways to make him the winner of the first version of that competition, but had less luck with a jury in a federal courtroom. Ultimately Hatch had three things working against him:

  • Before filing a tax return that omitted the Survivor income he hired a tax professional to prepare a return that included those winnings, indicating he was aware he had a duty to report that income.
  • He also failed to report other income, including a check that was supposed to be for a charity he founded but instead diverted to his own use.
  • Despite his legendary performance in the first Survivor competition, Hatch isn't a big enough celebrity to receive preferential treatment.

The appeals court agreed with the trial judge's handling of the case, including a ruling that testimony offered by the defense concerning Hatch's encounter with a shark during one of the episodes of the show wasn't relevant.

Hatch's $1,000,000 Survivor prize was reported on Form 1099, and the IRS automatically matches those forms against income reported on Form 1040, making the subsequent criminal charges and conviction all but inevitable. On Survivor he outwitted everyone, but his decision not to report the income puts him in a class with the guy who decided to hand the bank teller a deposit to his own account before robbing the bank. 

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