Richard Hatch is eyeing a comeback—in court.
The original Survivor champ, who was found guilty of tax evasion last January for failing to pay taxes on his $1 million prize money and associated income and was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison, filed an appeal Thursday hoping to have his conviction overturned.
In what's shaping up to be a high-stakes immunity challenge, Hatch's attorney filed paperwork in the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, arguing that the judge who oversaw the case barred Hatch from bringing evidence of behind-the-scenes shenanigans during the CBS' reality show's debut season.
During the trial, Hatch's attorneys tried to drop the bombshell that Survivor's producers struck a secret bargain with the Rhode Islander in which they agreed to pay his income taxes if he won. The offer was supposedly extended after Hatch allegedly threatened to blow the whistle on fellow contestants whom he claimed cheated by having food sneaked to them. Hatch's legal eagle asserted that producers attempted to buy his silence, thus explaining why he failed to pay taxes on the loot.
While the allegations of a cover-up caused a stir outside the courtroom with a number of former contestants issuing vehement public denials, the jury never actually heard the allegations.
Hatch's attorney, Michael Minns, broached the subject to U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres during a break in the trial. But Torres declined to allow the cheating claim to be brought up during Hatch's testimony. The former reality star only asserted that CBS agreed to pick up the tab on his tax bill and admitted that he was the "world's worst bookkeeper."
Earlier in the trial, Survivor mastermind Mark Burnett took the stand but was never questioned about an alleged conspiracy. Instead, he told the jury that players had signed contracts that made it clear they were responsible for paying their income taxes on any cash they won.
In the appeal, Minns said that Torres' refusal to allow Hatch to discuss the supposed cover-up "eviscerated Hatch's defense." Minns also claimed he was restricted from properly cross-examining several witnesses for the prosecution.
Torres ultimately imposed a harsher-than-usual jail term on the ex-corporate trainer, saying that after reviewing the evidence he felt Hatch tried to use his Survivor skills to dubious effect by repeatedly fibbing on the stand and showing no remorse for dodging the IRS.
He also agreed with prosecutors' contention that the onetime Tagi tribesman not only lied about his reality winnings, but also failed to report to other sources of income, including $327,000 he made cohosting a Boston radio program and $28,000 in rent on property he owned.
So much for outwitting, outlasting and outplaying the system.
There was no comment from Minns or CBS on the appeal. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said prosecutors would file a response with the court in the next few weeks.
After a short stint spent in solitary confinement in a Massachusetts prison, Hatch, 45, was sent to a federal lockup in Oklahoma before finally being transferred in July to the West Virginia Federal Correctional Institute in Morgantown. There, barring an appeals court overturning his conviction, the former motivational speaker will serve out his 51-month sentence tutoring fellow inmates—perhaps on the finer points of a 1040 form.