Richard Hatch: The Naked Truth

As Richard Hatch returns to reality TV to face Donald Trump on Celebrity Apprentice, the Survivor legend worries he might be sent back to prison for more tax-related problems. Can his gay wiles win him another battle?

When The Advocate interviewed Richard Hatch for an October 2000 cover story, the gay, 6-foot-4 Rhode Island native had just won the wildly popular premiere season of Survivor, a million-dollar victory some fans viewed as a metaphor for a gay man’s survival in a hostile heterosexual world. More than 10 years later, the snakelike strategist is equally famous for getting bitten by the IRS for tax evasion, a conviction that landed him in prison for nearly four years. Now free to compete on the fourth edition of Celebrity Apprentice, which premieres March 6th on NBC, the 49-year-old Hatch talks prison sex and the ongoing legal troubles that threaten his alliance with the gay tribe.

The Advocate: I can’t believe this is your first chat with The Advocate since 2000.
Richard Hatch: Well, you know, that whole prison thing can get in the way.

Oh, we’ll get to that. But when you last spoke to us, you still had very little sense of what your Survivor win meant to the gay audience. How has your relationship to the gay community evolved over the past decade?
As time unfolded, I started to recognize what my being on the show and being openly gay meant to people, because they started expressing it to me more and more. It’s hard to think about having the kind of impact that it turns out I had. To this day, people still write to me to talk about their experience of seeing somebody not afraid to be who they are. As a kid, I didn’t struggle as much as the kids who contacted me after the show, so it’s been humbling and rewarding, and I’ve really come to respect the influence that I’ve had.

You’ve said that your being gay was a main reason for your Survivor victory, in part because it taught you “to interact assertively with people.” Did you use your sexuality to your advantage on Celebrity Apprentice?
I think so, yes. [Laughs] I’m always using my gay wiles, but you’ll have to tune in to see how. But I never expected that some people might not even know I’m gay.

When you first saw your competition on Celebrity Apprentice, did you immediately have an idea of whom you’d befriend? All strategy aside, the little gay boy in me would’ve made a beeline to Lisa Rinna.
I did make a beeline to her. I adore her, and I couldn’t help it. I’m totally drawn to her, and we got along really well. She’s phenomenal. I love her because she’s so real. But the strategy part of the game was very similar to Survivor for me in that I needed information before I could fully strategize. I didn’t know anyone on Survivor, and even though I might’ve known who they were, I didn’t really know anyone in Celebrity Apprentice either. You need to get a feel for people before you can decide how they’re going to be helpful.

NeNe Leakes is already making headlines for her antagonistic behavior on the show. Are you a Real Housewives of Atlanta fan?
Oh, sure. NeNe’s a character. She’s just larger than life. When I meet famous people, very rarely are they who I think people might imagine them to be, but NeNe is. I’m drawn to her because she speaks her mind, and I don’t deal well with the whole superficial, hidden agenda thing. We actually got along well.

Were you starstruck by anyone?
Starstruck isn’t in my vocabulary — I’ve never really understood it — but I’m often impressed with goodness, kindness, and realness, and I did encounter that on this show. Some people were just wonderful to be around. And some weren’t. Irrationality is very difficult for me, so maybe you can make some speculation there.

Did you encounter homophobia from any of the contestants?
No. Other than with my legal battles and in the courts, I really haven’t encountered that in my life. Now I know what it is, but I certainly didn’t encounter it on Celebrity Apprentice.

Did you get the sense that Donald Trump is gay-friendly?
I had a great sense of that from before, encountering him a number of times in a number of situations. He even invited me to sit on the dais for his roast at the Friars’ Club, which I did. He’s a good guy. He loves women, so I don’t think he could relate to my being gay if his life depended on it, but I don’t think he cares.

Mr. Trump famously fired former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Khloe Kardashian because of a past DUI offense. Were you worried that Mr. Trump might judge you on your personal legal issues instead of the competition at hand?
Oh, absolutely. Obviously we’re not that close, so I’m certain that, as with most people, he only knows as much as he can know through the media. He has to be concerned about a person who’s been charged and convicted, though wrongfully so. I’m sure there was some tentativeness and wondering there, and that’s just what I encounter as a result of what’s happened.

That hardly seems fair.
It is fair because that’s life. You can’t know who somebody is until you spend time with them and process whatever data you have, valid or not. People don’t have an accurate understanding of who I am, and most of what the media has portrayed about my situation isn’t complete or accurate, but I’m used to it. I move forward, and hopefully someday people will understand.

As we’ve discussed, Survivor positioned you as a role model for the gay community. When the media’s focus turned toward your legal woes, did it feel like you had let the community down?
Absolutely. Well, I don’t know that I felt I had personally let them down, but I felt as if I was learning how undermined we as a community can be because of our second-class status in this culture and the pervasiveness of bigotry that I didn’t know was as powerful as it is. So, yeah, given the strong guy that I consider myself to be, I didn’t expect for anyone to abuse me the way I’ve been abused. It was a disappointment.

Even with some time having passed since your May 2009 release, you fully stand by your previous statements that antigay discrimination played a major part in your conviction?
It’s incontrovertible. This court refused to allow us to ask potential or selected jurors about their feelings toward homosexuals, even when many of them had submitted questionnaires that claimed “I could never find that fag innocent,” “I hate queers,” or “not a chance I could serve on this jury” — really unbelievable, blatant, clearly spoken homophobia that I didn’t even know existed. But I don’t blame the jurors; I blame the court and the bias of that particular judge from the outset.

Though most of your sentence was served at the Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia, which is a minimum-security facility, the first six months of your sentence were served in a maximum-security facility. We’ve all heard the same horror stories, so how did you feel going to prison as a famously gay man?
I was never afraid of being raped or of anything physical because I’m a healthy, strong guy, and I’ve always held my own. I also know that people are people, wherever they are, so I truly didn’t have the sense that they were going to be animals in prison. But it’s fascinating to me how sex is such a part of that all-male environment. In the Federal Correctional Institution, where I spend three years, there were 1,500 guys, one of whom was an in-process transsexual who was in there for prostitution. Her breasts had already grown in, so she ended up being removed from the prison after being raped. There’s also a lot more education than I imagined — access to information about how disease is transmitted, what to do if you feel threatened, etc. — but there was quite a bit of sex in there.

Were you able to connect with other gay people in prison? I want to imagine you in there like Jim Carrey in I Love You Philip Morris.
I haven’t seen that yet, but yeah, I met quite a few people in prison who were gay. There were even some gay people on staff.

Were gay staffers generally friendlier or more lenient?
No. Like with anything, it ran the spectrum. There’s as much homophobia among gay people as there is among straight people, and with gay people it’s often more damaging and destructive. Just look at our politicians. And with positions of power often come exaggerated homophobia, gay or not.

Have you maintained any of the friendships you made with gay prisoners?
Well, there are rules. Being currently on supervised release, I’m not allowed to be in contact with any felon with whom I was in prison.

You married your partner, Emiliano Cabral, in Nova Scotia in 2005. How did your relationship survive your long absence?
I’m the luckiest man on the planet. Our relationship is as strong as it has ever been. I adore him. But living in a country that doesn’t recognize our marriage is still infuriating beyond description. We’re in our eighth year now, and I can’t even begin to describe the additional torture, stress, and difficulty this has created only because we’re gay.

I assume there were no conjugal visits.
No. And for the first six months, before I was moved to the Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia, any visit with anyone was behind glass. The system is so broken that I don’t even know how to begin. That’s an entire topic I could go on about, and hopefully I will someday.

Aren’t you working on a book?
Oh, yeah. I wrote every day the entire time I was in prison. What publishers are waiting for and what I’m waiting for before accepting the offer is for the ending to be that I’m exonerated. It’s a heck of a battle, but I’m hopeful.

As recently as two weeks ago, it was reported that you might be headed back to jail. Should we be worried?
Absolutely you should be worried. I’m worried. Prosecutors are desperate to uphold this wrongful conviction. I’ve served nearly four years in prison, my entire sentence, and I’m on supervised release, which other people know as probation. I’ve also done everything humanly possible to comply with the original judge’s special conditions. One condition was that he ordered me to get mental health counseling. Probation got me a psychiatrist who said he didn’t understand why I was even there, so probation said I’d met that condition. The second condition was that he ordered me to amend my tax returns from 2000 and 2001, but they’re still the subject of an ongoing audit. To this day, the IRS has never given me a bill, so no taxes have ever been determined to be due. You can’t submit amended returns in the midst of an audit, not that I could submit them anyway because I haven’t been given figures as to how those returns should be amended. Not knowing what to do, the prosecutors just submitted their last brief on January 31, arguing to put me back in prison for not amending the returns. It’s infuriating. Now we’re waiting for the judge to decide what to do — decide whether this is a technical violation or whether I’m thumbing my nose at the court, which I’m obviously not. I’ve been in communication with probation this entire year and a half, and I have a hundred e-mails that express my cooperation with the IRS. But I’m still worried because I’ve seen what’s happened before. It’s not always about what’s true.

Here’s the million-dollar question: Considering all the problems that have stemmed from your Survivor winnings, do you wish you’d never won the damn prize in the first place?
That would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it? As an observer of life and one who lives it day by day, it is what it is. You take what you can from your experiences. It’s been devastating to me, my family, my friends, but I’m blown away and fascinated by what I’ve learned. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a huge contribution one day. Once I’m finally exonerated, I’ll have the credibility to make a difference that will affect many peoples’ lives.

Survivor's Ethan Zohn's Cancer is in Remission

Ever since he first started treatments for a rare form of Hodgkin's Disease last year, Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn has documented his journey in video on www.people.com. He and girlfriend Jenna Morasca, winner of Survivor: Amazon, have been grateful for the support of those tracking his progress – and are thrilled they have some good news to share.

"A few weeks ago, we got his first clean CT scan," says Morasca. "Now we can officially call him 'in remission.' We were so nervous for this test because good news on this test meant we could start our lives again."

The couple had been down this road before.

After he thought chemotherapy had worked to eradicate his cancer at the end of last August, Zohn learned it had come back. "The last clean scan we got was good but then we had to enter the stem cell transplant," Morasca says, "which was quite a long and daunting process."

Along the way, Zohn recovered from other hurdles of an equally emotional nature, such as the death of friend Jenn Lyon from breast cancer in January. But in April, when a nurse practitioner gave the couple the results of the scan, "both Ethan and I jumped up and hugged her!" Morasca says. "I cannot begin to explain the happiness and relief we felt."

The first thing the pair did to celebrate was to go on vacation, their first trip in more than a year, to Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Soon, Zohn will be traveling more as he begins taping a series of shows called Outside Today for a new network, Outside Television, in Portland, Ore. And in June, the couple will go to South Africa for a few weeks "to work with the charity he founded with his Survivor winnings, Grassroot Soccer," Morasca says, "and watch the World Cup games."

Sure enough, "Ethan says he is just excited to start living again and enjoying every precious moment," says Morasca. "We wanted to come out of this stronger people with more appreciation for each other and the world – and that's exactly what happened."

Survivor's Ethan Zohn Gets Good News in His Cancer Battle

Ethan Zohn received an early present this holiday season: a clear PET Scan.

The full-body scan performed by his doctors in Manhattan Tuesday confirmed that five weeks of radiation treatments just completed by the Survivor: Africa winner have done their job. For the first time since his battle with a rare form of Hodgkin's disease began last April, there are now no active cancer cells in his body.

"If I walked in off the street today, they would think I'm cancer free," says Zohn, 36, who has chronicled his struggle on www.People.com. "This is the best possible news I could have gotten at this stage of my journey.

"I honestly believe that all the positive healing vibes everyone has been sending me these past nine months have helped," Zohn says, "so thank you to everyone from the bottom of my heart."

Stem-Cell Transplant

As wonderful as the news is, Zohn's journey is not over yet. Because his cancer has proven itself to be resurgent in the past – after three months of intense chemotherapy over the summer, cancerous growths were found in his body in the fall – his doctors still plan to move forward with a stem-cell transplant.

Zohn expects to be admitted to the hospital in the next two weeks to begin the daunting procedure, which will keep him isolated for 30 days straight. "With my history," he says, "its essential."

But Zohn remains positive. "I'm so pumped and excited. My docs are amazing," he says.

His girlfriend, Jenna Morasca, and his family are elated as well, Zohn says.

Morasca stated, "I always knew he could beat it. This is the best Christ-makah present anyone could ask for." Showing her usual sense of humor, she adds, "Except a puppy."

Jon Gosselin on Survivor or The Amazing Race

Imagine this:

Jon Gosselin, on an abandoned island. Surrounded by great white sharks. Scampering up trees to hide from wild, angry boar. Trying to build a hut with giant palm leaves, only to wake up covered in fronds. Having to rip apart his precious Ed Hardy clothes and eat them for nourishment. No quasi-fug girlfriends. No Christian Audigier. No ATVs. It’s a pretty nice image, right?

Well thanks to the good folks at CBS, we might actually get to see that happen. Jon Gosselin is taking meetings to appear on “Survivor” or “The Amazing Race.” Instinct tells me Jon’s not exactly adept at anything involving strategy, but it’d sure be fun to watch for an episode or two until he tripped and quit.

Survivor's Richard Hatch Free from Jail

Reality TV star Richard Hatch has walked free from a Massachusetts prison after completing a federal sentence for tax evasion.

The winner of desert island show Survivor left Barnstable County jail in Bourne early on Friday morning and was escorted home to Rhode Island by local police.

He was jailed for failing to pay tax on the $1 million he won as the victor of the first season of the CBS reality show.

Hatch, 48, now faces three years of supervision and must pay back the tax he owes.

He was convicted in 2006 and released to home confinement earlier this year, but Hatch was sent back to jail after violating the terms of his detention by conducting TV interviews.

Ethan Zohn: 'My Cancer Is Back'

Just last month, for the first time since being diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin's disease in April – followed by three months of intense chemotherapy – Ethan Zohn was finally feeling good.

"I was off chemo," he says. "I was running up to seven miles" in preparation for November's New York City Marathon. "I was happy, I was going out. I went up to Boston to see the family and was feeling great."

Then, on Aug. 26, his doctor called with post-chemo test results – and they were not good. "My cancer is back," Zohn, 35, told People. "I have never been so scared in my life, for my life."

"It was a complete punch in the face," says the Survivor: Africa winner, who had been making regular video diaries for People.com. When the bad news hit, Zohn decided to wait until doctors started him on a new course of treatment before sharing the news with family, friends and now the rest of the world.

Family Reaction

"My mom was obviously upset," Zohn says. "My brothers – everyone's upset. They can't believe it's what's happening. But on the flip side, everyone's positive and supportive."

He adds, "You have to think positive. And you have to find the strength, which I will. And you have to rely on other people, which I will."

The chemotherapy Zohn had endured since May left him hairless and plagued by nausea. But it did have some positive effect: The mango-sized tumor in his chest shrunk significantly. "The original mass is pretty well contained," Zohn says.

That's the good news. The bad news showed up on PET and CAT scans: "There was re-growth," Zohn explains. "Two little nodules in a different location … It's quite rare that not only is there re-growth, but that there's re-growth so quickly. I was obviously resistant to the first form of chemotherapy."

Now, doctors have ordered a stem cell transplant aimed, as he puts it, at "hitting the reset button" on his body.

New Treatment

The new treatment – officially called risk-adapted high dose chemoradiotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for patients with relapsed and primary Hodgkin's lymphoma – will take place in three stages.

The once-shaggy-haired soccer player just emerged from the first part of stage one: He spent three days in a hospital last week, where he received a combination of chemotherapy drugs referred to as ICE. Since Zohn's immune system was in such a fragile state, his girlfriend, Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca, slept in a chair at his bedside each night dressed in a hospital gown, protective mask and rubber gloves.

After three weeks of rest, he'll return to the hospital for a second in-patient ICE treatment that will last four days. Doctors will then harvest healthy stem cells from Zohn's body and freeze them for later use.

"In stage two I will get blasted twice a day for 14 days with a high dose of radiation," Zohn told friends via e-mail last week. "In the final and most difficult stage, I will be admitted to the hospital for 30 days (yes a whole f'ing month), to get my final chemotherapy session to start my stem cell transplant."

Remaining Positive

Zohn says that both his red and white blood cell count will be brought down to zero during the month-long hospital stay – most likely in December – at which time his frozen, healthy stem cells will be reintroduced with the aim of replenishing his body entirely with non-cancerous cells.

"Then I'm cured," he said in his e-mail to friends, showing his usual air of hope and humor. "Easy as 1, 2, 3 … 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 … 1000 … 1,000,000."

As he has since beginning his battle, Zohn is vowing to remain positive. "Whatever things are thrown at you, you've got to battle through with a smile on your face," he says, "and the important people in your life around you."

Survivor's Richard Hatch Arrested...Again!

Richard Hatch really should not have gone around naked on Survivor all those years ago but now it seems that the guy can’t catch a break!

After giving an interview to Today’s Matt Lauer two weeks ago, the former Survivor winner was arrested and taken to a Rhode Island jail.

His sister, Kristin Hatch, told Lauer this morning that a sheriff’s deputy and another official arrived at her house within hours of Hatch’s interview airing Tuesday to take him into custody.

Kristin Hatch said that her brother told the deputy, “Do what you need to do, just tell me why.”

During nearly four years in prison for tax evasion, Hatch had been denied permission to give interviews. He told Lauer that his Today interview, along with two other interviews he did, were approved by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. His attorney Cynthia Ribas said she has been unable to find out why her client was taken back into custody.

“I have spoken to Richard, and I’m so sorry to say I don’t know what the grounds are for why they have him back in jail,” Ribas said.

Hatch, who is openly gay, was convicted in 2006 of failing to pay taxes on his $1 million prize for the first season of the CBS reality show. He was given extra prison time for lying on the stand.

He had said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he believes he was sent to prison because he’s gay: “I know without question that there are personal issues involved for the prosecutor. I don’t know why. The prosecutorial misconduct has been egregious.”

When asked whether he believes that if he was heterosexual, he would not have gone to prison, Hatch replied, “I do believe that.”

Former U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente – whose office oversaw the case – told WPRO-AM that Hatch is “delusional.”

Richard Hatch Invited Back to Survivor

Is Richard Hatch returning to Survivor?

The show’s first winner, who won the $1 million prize 10 years ago, has been invited back to participate in the show’s 10th anniversary season, but legal troubles may prevent him from joining the cast, according to the New York Post.

In May, Hatch completed a 51-month sentence for failing to pay taxes on his prize money but he must complete 90 days of home confinement, the paper reports.

Hatch has requested special permission in a federal court in Rhode Island to be able to travel to a Samoan island in the South Pacific, where the series will start filming next month.

Federal prosecutors do not want to let Hatch out of the country until he pays the taxes and penalties he owes, the Post reports. In a court filing, Hatch’s legal team argues any money he makes on the show will go to the government.

A casting director emailed Hatch to invite him on the show but said he “would need to be available for principal filming … on or about August 1,” according to the report. He would also have to pass “a physical and psychological examination as a background investigation,” but the invite did not mention legal hurdles.

Survivor's Ethan Zohn Has Cancer

Ethan Zohn, the curly-haired soccer player who battled the elements and outwitted opponents to win Survivor: Africa, is facing his toughest adversary yet: cancer.

On April 30th, Zohn was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin's disease. The diagnosis came after months of unexplained itching and night sweats, originally thought to be a skin condition. Doctors discovered a swollen lymph node under his left clavicle, and a CT scan revealed a mass on the left side of his chest. Then, just last week, Zohn learned he is suffering from a rare form the disease called CD20-positive Hodgkin's Lymphoma, for which he began chemotherapy last Friday.

"This is the ultimate game of Survivor," Zohn, 35, told People, "and there's really only one outcome, and that's to win. There's no other option."

Hodgkin's disease is a cancer of the body's lymphatic system with survival rates reaching as high as 90 percent. Zohn was told that the CD20 diagnosis, which affects around five percent of all Hodgkin's patients, has a similar cure rate, but is treated with an altered, more aggressive, three-month chemotherapy regimen. "They're going right after this," he says.

The chemo is expected to knock the always active and otherwise fit Zohn mostly out of commission for a few months, with nausea and weakness among its side effects. And he's expected to lose his famous mop of hair within two weeks.

Zohn's longtime girlfriend, Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca, 27, is vowing to be at his side throughout the process. "I will fight with every fabric of my being to get him through this," Morasca told People.

Both Zohn and Morasca lost parents to cancer. Zohn's father died of colon cancer when Ethan was 14. Morasca's mother died in 2003, after a 12-year battle with breast cancer. "Our only point of reference with this situation is death," says Morasca.

Upon hearing the diagnosis, says Zohn, "My life flashed before my eyes." But in the roller coaster of emotions that followed, Zohn came to a conclusion: He wants to use his battle with cancer as way to educate and inspire others.

"This is happening for a reason," he told People. "You have to get spiritual about this [stuff]. I know I want to help people and inspire people. That's my purpose in life. So I need to use this as a platform."

Zohn, who has worked to raise money and awareness for AIDS relief in Africa through his Grassroot Soccer charity ever since winning Survivor's $1-million prize in 2002, had his first chemo treatment in Manhattan last Friday. Doctors inserted a small, octagonal port in his chest through which the chemo will be administered "like a fast-filling station" every two weeks. "It looks like I have a third nipple right now," says Zohn. "You can call me trip-nip!"

He'll face the loss of his hair with the same bravado. "My hair is my identity," he admits. But rather than find "long, disgusting Ethan Zohn hair all over my house," he's decided to shave it off in the next few days: "I'll get a mohawk or something fun that I've always wanted to do."

That's just fine with Morasca. "I so love the bad-boy look," she says. "I'd have him get a tattoo and a nose piercing, too, but he's not into it."

Bad-boy looks or not, Zohn says he feels well-prepared for the long fight ahead. "I've got good family and friends, and I'll roll with the punches as it comes to me. That's how I work in life. I'll take it on like a real game of Survivor," he says, adding: "I'm not getting voted out of this one."

Survivor's Richard Hatch Gets Early Prison Release

Reality TV star Richard Hatch has been released from a federal prison after failing to pay taxes on his winnings from hit show Survivor.

Hatch, 47, was crowned the winner of Survivor: Borneo in 2000, but he was indicted and sentenced to four years behind bars in 2005 on charges of tax evasion on the $1 million plus he'd earned from the show, as well as TV appearances and property taxes.

Prison officials have confirmed he was released from a facility in Morgantown, West Virginia on May 11th for good behaviour, and will spend the next six months in a halfway house in the area before going into supervised release. Hatch was originally due to be released in October.

Gay "Survivor" Stays Closeted for Now!

On the Thursday installment of Survivor: Tocantins, gay contestant Spencer Duhm, was asked if he's interested in any of the women on the show and deflected the question.

Duhm later explained:

"My tribemates are not aware that I'm gay. I haven't told them. Only because in the culture that we live in, there's nothing really to gain, or not much to gain from people finding out that you are gay. I don't like hiding it though. I would like to be able to have those conversations when we're talking about girls. I wouldn't mind, you know, makin' like 'Spencer, well what type of guy do you like' or something, but I know that that's not the best option for me in the game at this point, so..."

And it's even more drama going on: Survivor: China winner Todd Herzog revealed earlier this week that he and Duhm are dating.

Supreme Court Rejects Gay ‘Survivor’ Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear Richard Hatch’s appeal of his conviction for failing to pay taxes on the $1 million prize he won on the debut season of “Survivor.”

The openly gay Hatch, 47, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison after his 2006 conviction for tax evasion in federal court in Providence. He is scheduled to be released in October 2009.

Hatch’s appeal was already denied by a federal appeals court in Boston and was among more than a thousand rejected last week by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court did not explain its reasoning.

“He’s disappointed with the decision,” Hatch’s attorney, Michael Minns, said Wednesday. “He’s been worried about his family and taking care of them the entire time.”

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island, which prosecuted Hatch, did not comment Wednesday.

Hatch, of Newport, argued in his appeal that a judge improperly barred him from raising allegations of cheating during the taping of the hit CBS show and from explaining why he believed the producers would pay his taxes for him.

During the trial, Minns told U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres outside the jury’s presence that Hatch had caught show employees smuggling food to other contestants during taping in Borneo in 2000. He said a producer promised him his taxes would be paid if he kept quiet and went on to win the competition, a claim CBS has strongly denied.

Besides his “Survivor” winnings, Hatch also was convicted of evading taxes on $327,000 he earned as co-host of a Boston radio show and $28,000 in rent on property he owed.

He was acquitted of seven bank, mail and wire fraud charges that related to his charity, Horizon Bound, an outdoors program he planned to open for troubled youth.