Paul Hogan launders money?
A famous Australian actor Paul Hogan has been under investigation for money-laundering. The actor has dismissed allegations and claimed he owes no money to the taxman.
The world-famous Crocodile Dundee stated that he had always paid the necessary amount of tax. When commenting upon the allegations, Hoges had previously released only humorous statements. He even said that not he owed money to Australia, but vice versa – as for some time he had been paying tax in two countries, which could have left him with just tiny sums.
In August, Paul Hogan, his friend and business partner John Cornell and their Sydney-resident accountant Anthony Stewart were connected to the Operation Wickenby investigation, accused with funnelling millions of dollars in royalties from the Crocodile Dundee movies into tax havens administered through Strachans – a Swiss-based accounting firm. The 67-year-old star was being investigated for holding USD 40 million in 21 Swiss trusts not declated to to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The investigation is considered to be a part of the major joint tax and money laundering probe, Operation Wickenby, that possibly involves USD 300 million in unpaid taxes and has Strachans at the centre of the operation.
The star has once produced the following statement about paying taxes: “I have always followed Kerry Packer’s advice to me. He said, “Pay whatever tax you owe, son, but don’t tip ‘em, they’re not doing that good a jobâ€.”
Hogan, residing in California had consulted his lawyers about suing the Sydney’s newspaper for damaging his business reputation. He said, “Every time they had a story on any kind of tax fraud or problem or evasion or avoiding, they had a picture of me in there to tie me to it because I was the best known person that was in any way associated with it.”
The actor also said he had more than paid his dues to Australia by means of promoting the country and its tourism to pay his way. Well, this is what you would hardly want to argue. By the way, The Crocodile Dundee trilogy was the most successful film series of Australia that has earned USD 300 million in international gross takings.