Hogan's
interview with the television program "A Current Affair" was his
first public comment since the actor was barred earlier this month from leaving
Australia until he settles a multimillion dollar tax bill. Hogan told the news
program the tax office was on a witch-hunt for a high-profile case, and he
should not be classed a flight risk. "I actually came out here at the
request of the Australian Crime Commission at my own time and expense to assist
them with their inquires," he said in the interview. "If I was a tax
evader, which I'm not, I must be the dumbest one in the world, because they
gave me five years notice that they have seized every piece of paper that my
tax advisers and lawyers and accountants have ever had. I kept coming back here."
Australian tax and crime investigators have fought Hogan in a five-year legal
wrangle in Australian and U.S. courts to investigate evidence he used offshore
bank accounts to conceal earnings since his low-budget "Crocodile
Dundee" movie became an international hit in 1986.
