Reporting on Derek and Kellie Chauvin charged with tax evasion:
On Wednesday 22/07/2020, the disgraced and incarcerated ex-police officer Derek Chauvin and his wife Kellie were both charged with tax evasion dating back to 2014. The former police officer is already in police custody facing charges of murder in the killing of George Floyd on May 25, whilst Kellie, a former Mrs. Minnesota, is not in custody. The couple have not filed tax returns from 2016 to 2018 and could owe the US government almost $38,000 (around £30,000). The charges claim that the couple have underreported and underpaid taxes on income they earned from various jobs each year, including at least $96,000 the ex-cop earned in off-duty security work, as well as a waiter at weekends.
It is also alleged that the Chauvins failed to pay proper sales tax on a $100,230 BMW purchased in Minnesota in January 2018, which prosecutors say was bought in Minnetonka but registered in Florida, where they paid lower sales taxes. The taxes due on the SUV would amount to $5,053 (just under £4000).
The couple were each charged in Washington County with six counts of filing false or fraudulent tax returns for the tax years 2014 through 2019, and charged with three counts of failing to file tax returns for 2016, 2017 and 2018. The complaint states that between 2014 and 2019, the Chauvins underreported their joint income by $464,433.
Between 2014 and 2019, Chauvin would have earned between $52,000 and $72,000 (around £40,000 and £56,000) annually as a police officer, yet also worked as an off-duty security guard at the El Nuevo Rodeo dance club, Cub Foods, Midtown Global Market and EME Antro Bar on E. Lake Street. With all of this taken into account, the complaint claims he failed to pay taxes on almost $96,000 earn from the dance club alone.
Online court records have not listed attorneys for either in the tax evasion case, unsurprising as Derek is on a $1.25million bond pending bail for case of the death of George Floyd.
Washington County Attorney Pete Orput stated the investigation into the Chauvinstax irregularities was started in June by the Minnesota Department of Revenue and Oakdale Police Department, and that that Minnesota Department of Revenue officials contacted him in June about the records they had found. Regarding the failure to file tax reports, Attorney is also on record saying, ‘They were sending him letters last year and they got no response’.
Unbelievably, Mrs Chauvin told investigators they didn’t file their returns because ‘it got away’ from her, clearly insinuating that she really couldn’t be bothered on a continuous basis, or that she genuinely believed she could continue to defraud the American government.
As well as the obvious ways in which the couple defrauded and avoided tax, they really could not have it much easier to ensure they were legally sound. Derek Chauvin’s father is a qualified accountant and had prepared their 2014 and 2015 tax returns. Mr Chauvin (senior) is on record stating said that they had failed to provide him with the information to file returns from 2016 onward.
In a horrible twist of fate, ironically and coincidentally she was previously charged with writing a bad $42 check in February 2005, which has similarities to what George Floyd was arrested for on May 25th 2020. Despite multiple letters sent to her home, she hadn’t paid the owed money owed by July of that year, leading to a criminal complaint being filed against her. Kellie, who at the time was married to her late ex-husband Kujay Xiong, eventually paid the money and the case was dismissed.
Mrs Chauvin filed for divorce in early June, citing “irretrievable breakdown”, and has allegedly applied to have her name changed. On Wednesday 22nd July, her attorney also requested that the file on her divorce from Chauvin be sealed following ‘constant harassment from the public’. Whilst having no children together, Kellie Chauvin has two children from her marriage to Mr Xiong, who died in 2013.
If convicted Mrs Chauvin could face up to 5 years in prison, or face fines of up to $100,000 (around £78,000). I for one hope that for her children’s sake, she is not incarcerated. Whilst I cannot condone or feel sorry for her for the financial fraud that she has committed, I cannot see how putting her in prison will lead to any better life for her two children, who have already suffered many times over, and will now be facing the prospect of losing both parents.
The most fulfilling part of writing this article has been that Derek Chauvin is now referred to as an ‘ex-police officer’.
Never stop learning. Be relentless. Knowledge is power
