Miami’s resident Helio Castroneves charged with tax evasion
Celebrity race car driver Helio Castroneves faces tax evasion charges for failing to pay taxes on more than $5 million.
Helio Castroneves — winner of both the Indianapolis 500 and reality TV show Dancing with the Stars — will soon be doing the tango with the IRS over multimillion-dollar tax-evasion charges in Miami federal court, U.S. authorities said.The famed Brazilian driver, who owns a Coral Gables mansion sporting his auto-racing trophies and two checkered flags from his Indy 500 victories, will make his first appearance in court Friday afternoon after being indicted along with a relative and a Michigan attorney.
The 33-year-old Team Penske star is charged with failing to pay taxes on more than $5 million in income over a four-year period. His sister, Kati Castroneves, and his lawyer, Alan Miller, are accused of assisting him in the alleged tax-evasion scheme.
The three defendants are expected to surrender to authorities and secure bonds on Friday afternoon so they won’t have to spend the weekend at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.
Castroneves was born in Sao Paulo. Race car driving has made him a rich man.
He won the Indianapolis 500 in both 2001 and 2002. He was the fifth driver to achieve that milestone in consecutive years. He also finished second to teammate and countryman Gil de Ferran in 2003.
He become a bona fide American celebrity last year after winning the fifth season of ABC’s reality TV show Dancing with the Stars with partner Julianne Hough.
At his Coral Gables home, he keeps three large trophies on three stone columns in front of a window overlooking his front patio.
”My Dancing with the Stars trophy is the one in the middle. I love that disco ball,” Castroneves recently told a Miami Herald reporter.
After that wave of publicity, Castroneves started drawing as much interest in his love life as his racing career. He denied dating his dance partner.
”No, I’m not dating Julianne,” Castroneves said last December when he announced he and his longtime girlfriend Aliette Vazquez had called off their engagement.
On the race track, Castroneves has been more of a runner-up than a winner this year.
In the IndyCar Series, Castroneves won for the first time in 30 races at the Sonoma, Calif., Grand Prix in late August. Until that victory, he had finished runner-up seven times.
Castroneves screamed with joy when he crossed the finish line, hollering, “Bring it home, baby.”
He has been nicknamed Spider Man for his fence-climbing celebrations. In Sonoma, he jumped out of his No. 3 Dallara Honda at the finish line and scaled a short fence behind the pits to celebrate with fans.
‘They kept telling me, `Push, push, push.’ That was fun, a lot of fun,” Castroneves said. “Oh my God, this is awesome. We’ve been close so often. We never lost faith.”
For Castroneves, it was his 13th IndyCar Series victory.
In early September, Castroneves finished second in the Detroit Grand Prix, closing the gap between himself and his first 2008 IndyCar Series driver championship. However, he wound up finishing second to series champ Scott Dixon of New Zealand.
The original source of this article can be found at:
www.miamiherald.com / Fri, Oct. 3, 2008
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