'Survivor' winner Richard Hatch may lose Newport properties to pay $2.9M in back taxes

PROVIDENCE— He bested his challengers on "Survivor" with his cunning, but reality TV star Richard H. Hatch Jr. has met an unrelenting rival in the federal government.

Tax officials continue to pursue Hatch to recover some $2.9 million in back taxes, plus interest, dating to his winnings two decades ago. 

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to order the sale of two Newport properties they say Hatch owns to recoup unpaid taxes. They accuse the "Survivor" winner of fraudulently transferring the homes to his sister, Kristin Hatch, in an attempt to thwart the government and his other creditors.

Federal tax authorities want U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith to enforce the federal tax liens on 21 and 23 Annandale Road in order to reduce the $2.9 million sum the government is owed. The filing requests that proceeds from the sale pay any real estate taxes due to the City of Newport first before money heads to the federal government. 

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Newport Tax Collector Laurie Kenney didn’t respond to two inquiries left at her office. The Rhode Island Division of Taxation cannot share information about individual taxpayers, according to spokesman Paul Grimaldi.

According to a Zillow website, 23 Annandale is a two-bedroom home assessed at $677,200 that features a pool; 21 Annandale is a five-bedroom house that lists for rent at $3,500 a month.

Hatch did not respond to a request for comment and has not yet responded in court.

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Hatch has long been accused of not paying taxes on 'Survivor' prize money

The action filed in federal court last Friday is the latest in a long legal saga stretching back decades.

In 2000, Hatch, now 61, appeared on the first season of the reality show "Survivor," setting himself apart as the calculating and openly gay contestant who often competed nude. He ultimately won, netting $1 million in winnings.

But federal prosecutors, working with the Internal Revenue Service, accused Hatch of evading taxes on his prize and other earnings, including rental-property income.

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A federal jury convicted him of not paying the taxes he owed on about $1.4 million. In sentencing him, then U.S. District Chief Judge Ernest C. Torres called Hatch's explanations for not paying his taxes "preposterous" and "just incredible." He hit Hatch with the longest term he could — 51 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Hatch had contended that he never deliberately intended to withhold taxes.

"I believe I have been completely truthful and forthcoming, your honor," he said at his sentencing.

He was released in 2009 and ordered to refile his 2000 and 2001 taxes and pay what he owed. A judge ruled he never did and returned him to prison for nine months.

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Since then, Hatch married and divorced Emiliano Cabral in Family Court in Rhode Island after 14 years.

He bought property in Nova Scotia that was included in a tax sale for allegedly failing to pay $2,722 in taxes, according to Saltwire.

Throughout it all, tax officials say, Hatch has not yet paid his taxes from two decades ago.