The former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder for the death of George Floyd has now also been charged with multiple charges of tax evasion, according to criminal complaints alleging that he and his wife did not report earnings from various jobs, including more than $ 95,000. for his off-duty security work.
Derek Chauvin and his wife, Kellie May Chauvin, were charged Wednesday in Washington County with six counts of helping and encouraging the filing of false or fraudulent tax returns in the state of Minnesota and three counts of failure to help and encourage not to file state tax returns.
Complaints allege that, from 2014 to 2019, the Chauvins reported less than their combined income at $ 464,433. With unpaid taxes, interest and fees, they now owe $ 37,868 to the state.
Imran Ali, a Washington County prosecutor, said the charges relate only to tax irregularities in the state of Minnesota, not federal taxes or taxes in Florida, where the couple has a second home. He said the amount of unpaid taxes could increase, as the investigation is ongoing.
Floyd died on May 25 after Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for almost eight minutes while Floyd pleaded for air. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and involuntary manslaughter. He and three other officers who were on the scene were fired.
Chauvin is in custody on the charges in the Floyd case. Kellie Chauvin, who filed for divorce after Floyd’s death, was not in custody Wednesday.
Online court records did not include attorneys for any of the tax evasion cases, and no call was made to Kellie Chauvin. Her divorce lawyer did not return a call seeking comment. Eric Nelson, Derek Chauvin’s lawyer on the murder charges, had no comment Wednesday.
The investigation began in June, after the Minnesota Department of Revenue received information on suspicious tax returns from Derek Chauvin. The agency began an internal cursory review, then opened a formal investigation after determining that the Chauvins did not file state taxes as required.
The investigation finally found that the Chauvins did not file state tax returns for 2016, 2017, and 2018, and did not report all of their income for 2014 and 2015. When the tax returns for 2016 through 2019 were filed in June this year, the Chauvins They also did not report all of their income in those years, according to the complaints.
Complaints said that as a police officer Chauvin could perform off-duty security work and had to pay taxes on that income. From 2014 to 2020, Chauvin worked in off-duty security at various locations.
He worked at the El Nuevo Rodeo restaurant almost every weekend from January 2014 to December 2019, according to the complaints. By averaging his $ 220 a night salary over his work hours at that business, investigators believe he earned about $ 95,920 over six years that the Chauvins did not report as income.
Kellie Chauvin is a real estate agent and also operates a photography business under the name of KC Images. Bank records reviewed by investigators show that she or the company received 340 checks totaling $ 66,472.75 that were not reported as income in 2014 and 2015, according to the complaints.
The complaints allege that the Chauvins also failed to pay the appropriate sales tax on a $ 100,000 BMW purchased in Minnesota in 2018. Prosecutors say they bought the car in Minnetonka, but did mention their Florida address as their address. While the couple mainly lives in Minnesota, Kellie Chauvin told investigators that they moved to Florida because it was cheaper to register a car there. They allegedly paid lower sales taxes than they would have paid in Minnesota.
The complaints also say that the Chauvins sold a rental home in Woodbury in 2017 and took a depreciation deduction to reduce their income taxes, but they did not properly apply the deduction to the purchase price of the house when they calculated the income tax. of capital, resulting in a decrease in taxes paid
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According to the charges, the Chauvins were sent “missing refund request” letters in the fall of 2019, warning them that they had not filed state taxes for 2016 and that they could be subject to criminal penalties if their tax returns were not filed.
When investigators interviewed her, Kellie Chauvin said she knew she had to file tax returns every year, but had not done so because she “slipped it,” according to the complaints.
