Chauvin and his ex-wife have been accused of not paying taxes since 2016.
The former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd also faces multiple charges of tax evasion.
Derek Chauvin and his separated wife, Kellie May Chauvin, were charged Wednesday by Washington County prosecutors with failing to file their taxes since 2016 and filing fraudulent returns since 2014.
The couple, who have two houses in Oakdale, Minnesota, and one in Windermere, Florida, owe $ 37,868 in taxes and penalties, according to the criminal complaint.
Derek Chauvin is currently in custody at the Minnesota Correctional Center in Oak Park Heights on $ 1.25 million bail after his arrest for Floyd’s death on May 25. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.
Her attorney for the Floyd case, Eric Nelson, declined to comment to ABC News on Thursday on the tax evasion charges or confirm whether she would represent the couple in that case.
Chauvin, a 19-year-old police veteran, was seen in a cell phone video pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck as Floyd lay on the ground struggling to breathe and calling his mother.
Kellie May Chauvin filed for divorce after Derek Chauvin and three other Minneapolis officers were arrested for serious crimes and murder in Floyd’s death.
The Chauvins now face six counts each of filing false or fraudulent returns and three counts of non-filing of returns, according to court documents. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison and $ 10,000 in fines.
“When you fail to meet the basic obligation to file and pay taxes, you are taking money out of the pockets of Minnesota citizens,” Washington County District Attorney Pete Orput said in a statement. “Our office has and will continue to file these charges when they come up. If you are a prosecutor or a police officer, or if you are a doctor or a real estate agent, no one is above the law.”
According to the complaint, the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s investigation into the Chauvins began on June 12 after multiple correspondence sent in 2019 by the department regarding its missing 2016 individual income tax return.
In addition to the earnings of Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department, he has worked since 2014 as an off-duty security guard at four companies, according to the complaint.
“D. Chauvin earned approximately $ 95,920.00 between January 2014 and December 2019 from El Nuevo Rodeo that the Chauvins did not report as income,” according to the complaint.
The 44-year-old also worked as a licensed real estate agent to obtain RE / MAX results in 2017, earning $ 9,477.50 that was not reported, according to the complaint.
Kellie May Chauvin, 45, has worked as a RE / MAX Results-Licensed Real Estate Agent at Eden Prairie since 2016, but did not report that income, according to the complaint. She also operates a photography business under the name “KC Images,” for which she reportedly did not report her income in 2014 and 2015, according to the complaint.
She told investigators that she did not file tax returns because “it escaped her,” according to the criminal complaint. Her father was her accountant for at least two fiscal seasons, according to the complaint.
The couple allegedly bought a 2018 BMW X5 in January 2018 for more than $ 100,000 and registered it under their Florida address, where they allegedly avoided paying more than $ 5,000 in sales tax. Kellie May Chauvin allegedly told investigators last month that they moved to Florida “because it was cheaper to register a car,” according to the criminal complaint.
A court date has not yet been set for the Chauvins’ charges to be read, prosecutors confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.
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