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(Providence, Rhode Island) The accountant for
"Survivor" winner Richard Hatch, who is charged in federal court with failing to pay taxes on
his $1 million winnings and other income, can't testify about Hatch's accounting
abilities or other tax problems which can result from a sudden change in income,
a judge has ruled.
Daniel Urso was expected to testify for the defense in Hatch's upcoming trial
that the reality show winner had lousy bookkeeping abilities and was not good at
keeping track of his expenses.
Hatch's attorney, John MacDonald, said the subject was important to the case
since the government needs to prove that Hatch deliberately shirked his tax
obligations.
"It goes ultimately for a jury to decide, the issue of
willfulness," MacDonald said.
Hatch has pleaded innocent to charges of tax evasion, filing a false tax
return, wire fraud, bank fraud and mail fraud.
But federal prosecutors said the question for the jury will be simply whether
Hatch knowingly filed false tax returns, and argued in U.S. District Court in
Providence that Urso shouldn't be called as an expert witness.
"What may or may not be his accounting or bookkeeping abilities is
really irrelevant to that question," said assistant U.S. Attorney Lee
Vilker.
U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres agreed with prosecutors, saying the case
was not about bookkeeping. But Torres denied prosecutors' request to prevent
Urso from testifying that the 2000 and 2001 tax returns filed by Hatch were
incorrectly prepared by his accountant at the time, or that Hatch had been
working to fix his tax problems by filing amended returns for those years.
Urso, a longtime accountant who has prepared thousands of personal tax
returns, has reviewed Hatch's 2000 and 2001 returns, but was not his accountant
at the time. He has worked with Hatch to prepare corrected returns for those two
years, but has been stymied by a lack of cooperation from Hatch's prior
accountant, lawyers said.
Jury selection in the trial was scheduled for Tuesday. Besides the
"Survivor" winnings, Hatch is also accused of omitting $327,000 he was
paid to co-host a radio show and $28,000 in rent on a property he owns in
Newport from his 2000 and 2001 tax returns. He is also accused of misusing
$36,500 in donations to his charity, Horizon Bound, to cover personal expenses.
©365Gay.com 2006
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