Paul Hogan in victory over Australian tax detectives
Paul Hogan, the actor best known for playing Crocodile Dundee, has won a five year tax evasion battle after Australian detectives dropped the investigation.
Paul Hogan gained international fame through his role as Mick "Crocodile" Dundee in the 1986 film
3:56PM GMT 23 Nov 2010
Australian Crime Commission Chief Executive John Lawler said in a statement that they were not pursuing the probe for a range of reasons including "insufficient prospects of securing convictions."
Australian tax and crime investigators had fought Hogan in a five-year legal battle in Australian and US courts to investigate suspicions that he used offshore bank accounts to conceal earnings after his low-budget "Crocodile Dundee" movie trilogy became an international hit in 1986.
However, the 70-year-old is still being pursued separately by the Australian Taxation Office over a disputed multimillion-dollar tax bill. Tax officials barred the Australian actor from returning to his Los Angeles home for two weeks earlier this year over the matter. Hogan's lawyers eventually secured a deal with the tax office that allowed him to leave the country.
How much Hogan owes has not been made public. But he said in August that he is unable to afford even 10 per cent of his tax bill. Hogan's lawyer, Andrew Robinson, said the end of the criminal investigation will give "immense relief" to his client, who had yet to be advised.
