Survivor Winner Richard Hatch Turns Out to Be a Loser

Richard Hatch, 44, made a name for himself in a dramatic way when he was declared the winner of the reality show "Survivor" after its first season in August 2000. Hatch was more despised than admired by many viewers of the show because of his shrewd and ruthless treatment of other competitors, and also because he flagrantly appeared naked in front of the people who shared the island. His bizarre and eccentric behavior won him appearances on other TV shows after his Survivor win, most recently "The Battle of the Network Reality Stars" on the Bravo network.

Since making a name for himself, Hatch has continually endured a series of legal battles, some of which he emerged from unscathed. In April 2000 he was arrested for abusing his son, who was 9 years old at the time. That charge was later dropped, but in 2002, Hatch was arrested again for assaulting his ex-boyfriend, a charge for which he was later found innocent. But his latest charges are going to be much harder to avoid, because they involve huge sums of money, including his $1 million Survivor winnings.

Hatch was indicted Thursday for failing to pay taxes on his winnings from the CBS show, among other things. The entire list of 10 charges includes tax evasion, filing a false tax return, wire fraud, bank fraud, and mail fraud. According to U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, Hatch did not pay taxes on the $1 million he won on "Survivor," and he also did not pay taxes on rental income and income he received from a radio show. In 2000 and 2001, he was paid $327,000 for co-hosting "The Wilde Show" on a Boston radio station, and he received $28,000 in rent on a property he owns in Newport, yet none of that money appeared on the tax returns he filed for those years.

Prosecutors charged Hatch with two counts of tax evasion in January, to which he agreed to plead guilty. But in March, he backed out of the deal because he said he thought CBS was responsible for paying the taxes on his prize money. So he withdrew his offer to plead guilty, and a grand jury indicted him for filing false 2000 and 2001 tax returns. According to the indictment, Hatch hired two accountants to prepare tax returns that included his "Survivor" winnings. But when he learned that he would owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, he decided not to file either of those returns. In 2002, he had one of the accountants prepare a different return that didn’t include his television winnings, and that’s the return he filed. Amazingly, his return resulted in a $4,500 refund.

Hatch is also accused of using donations to a nonprofit camp he set up, Horizon Bound, for personal expenses. For example, he accepted a donation of $10,000 that was made in return for his appearance on the NBC game show "Weakest Link." Instead of the money going to charity as he promised, Hatch spent the money on a construction project at his house. Yet even though he spent a huge charity donation on himself to upgrade his house, he’s apparently a kind and generous philanthropist who’s just been misunderstood. Because when reporters attempted to contact Hatch to discuss the charges against him, a spokesman for his lawyer, Michael Minns, said that Hatch was on a plane headed for Houston to offer help to hurricane victims at the Astrodome.

If he’s found guilty on all the charges against him, Hatch may be sentenced to a maximum of 75 years, and could face millions of dollars in fines. Which is proof that Richard Hatch may be a survivor, but he’s an idiot.