Richard Hatch, the over-weight, un-popular contestant dubbed "the fat naked guy", said that the whole thing is totally not his fault, you know, because he was under the belief that CBS would pay the taxes on the $1 million prize he won on the "Survivor" reality show.
But oops, he didn't have a valid excuse for also evading taxes on $327,000 he earned as co-host of a Boston radio show and $28,000 in rent on property he owned. The winner of the first "Survivor" series is headed - not to a beautiful island - but the Big House.
As a defense strategy, his lawyer Michael Minns argued that his client had caught other contestants cheating and that the show's producers at CBS agreed to pay his taxes in exchange for his "silence". (Why wasn't he brought up on charges of blackmail?) Hatch says he saw people trying to sneak food to the contestants on "Survivor".
However, Judge Ernest Torres did not permit the jurors to hear the testimony about the cheating, but several of the original cast have dissed Hatch's claims. "I really have no idea what he could possibly be thinking in terms of how he could get away with this," said former tribemember Dirk Been.
After the verdict was read, Hatch was handcuffed and taken into custody after the judge called him a potential flight risk. Hatch will have to pay a $600,000 fine for failing to pay $350,000 in taxes. Ooooo, the IRS has spoken!
The fat naked guy - make that, the dumb fat naked felon - faces up to 13 years in prison but will likely serve between 3 and 4 years for trying to outwit the feds. For the next three years, Hatch will get to play the "reward challenge" a lot, cuz you know they just love fat, naked - and rich - guys in prison.
