Crocodile Dundee Star Banned From Leaving Oz
9:37am UK, Thursday August 26, 2010
Ian Woods, Australia correspondent
The Australian actor Paul Hogan has been banned from leaving the country because of claims he owes millions of pounds in unpaid tax.
The 70-year-old star of the Crocodile Dundee films has been under investigation for five years, with the tax authorities claiming he owes more than £21.3m. Hogan now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Linda Kozlowski and their 12-year-old son, but he returned to Australia to attend his mother's funeral. She died last week aged 101.
Hogan's lawyer told the Sydney Daily Telegraph officers served a notice on the eve of the funeral. "It was served on Paul's daughter at her Sydney home on Friday night with the funeral on Saturday morning," he said. "Imagine on the night before you bury your mother for this to happen.
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I've paid my tax. Go away. Stop sticking your nose in about what money I've got here or where, or what I'm going to do with it, or how I got it.
<cite> Paul Hogan speaking to Channel 9's Sixty Minutes </cite>
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"The process of detaining Paul in Australia away from his wife and child in Los Angeles has devastated him and he hopes that discussions between us and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) will lead to a prompt resolution allowing him to return to his family." "Following five years of intrusive investigations by the Australian Crime Commission and the ATO, no charges have been laid." The investigation is centred on earnings made a decade ago when Hogan was in the process of moving to America.
The bill has risen because of interest and penalties through non-payment.
Hogan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in several interviews in recent years, including these comments to Channel 9's Sixty Minutes programme.
"I'm insulted to be called a tax cheat. My financial adviser and my manager are not tax cheats either, nor have they done any cheating on my behalf.
Hogan told prosecutors to "bring it on"
"I've paid my tax. Go away. Stop sticking your nose in about what money I've got here or where, or what I'm going to do with it, or how I got it. Am I going to get arrested? Bring it on." The Federal Court was told last week the Crime Commission was getting ready to lay criminal charges against Hogan, and two business partners John Cornell and Anthony Stewart.
Hogan and Cornell are believed to have made upwards of £97m from their successful partnership but the tax office alleges that some of the income was sent offshore to hide it. Hogan used to be the face of Australian tourism, fronting a number of television ads, famously telling viewers he'd "slip another shrimp on the barbie for ya". But the man who urged people to come to Australia, now finds he cannot leave while the authorities consider their next move.
