Investigating The DWTS Curse

I don't know how many people have been following this, but Helio Castroneves is in some trouble over his income taxes. He and two relatives have been indicted for tax evasion and conspiring to defraud. It's going to be a tough case because Helio was apparently following the advice of tax advisors who assured him that what he was doing was legal. It is my understanding that, for these charges, intent has to be proven. Of course, he will still owe the back taxes either way, which from what I've read runs into seven figures.

It looks like the case may turn on the ownership of a Brazilian company that was being paid some of Helio's endorsement money. Helio apparently stated under oath to the grand jury that he does not own the company. If that turns out to be false, then it looks like he's got a perjury charge coming. :shock: We'll have to see how it unfolds.

There is an Indycar race in Australia this weekend. Helio's passport was seized when he was arrested, but yesterday the judge granted him permission to leave the country to go run the race.
 
Imhere said:
http://www.accesshollywood.com/dish...-with-a-pyschic-medium-part-one_article_11811
Click to expand...
That whole exchange between the reporter and the two mediums shows that people are still being taken in by these con artists in this day and age. These people have private investigators. Before the mediums walked into the DWTS set, they must have checked out the people they were going to meet. Just because the reporter THOUGHT no one would've known her aunt was a gambler doesn't mean this fact can't be discovered. In that whole dialog between the mediums and her, notice how the mediums initiated every topic and basically controlled the whole conversation. Someone should just confront them cold and bring up a topic of their own, or make up one so they can call them bluff later.
 
cornutt said:
I don't know how many people have been following this, but Helio Castroneves is in some trouble over his income taxes. He and two relatives have been indicted for tax evasion and conspiring to defraud. It's going to be a tough case because Helio was apparently following the advice of tax advisors who assured him that what he was doing was legal. It is my understanding that, for these charges, intent has to be proven. Of course, he will still owe the back taxes either way, which from what I've read runs into seven figures.

It looks like the case may turn on the ownership of a Brazilian company that was being paid some of Helio's endorsement money. Helio apparently stated under oath to the grand jury that he does not own the company. If that turns out to be false, then it looks like he's got a perjury charge coming. :shock: We'll have to see how it unfolds.

There is an Indycar race in Australia this weekend. Helio's passport was seized when he was arrested, but yesterday the judge granted him permission to leave the country to go run the race.
Click to expand...

It's been all over the news here in Indy (since it's 500-related), but I haven't really been keeping up with it too much. Although I will say that the coverage around here has transitioned from depicting Helio as a victim of bad financial advice to depicting him as more of a knowledgeable and willing participant in the funny business going on with his taxes :( And if the Wesley Snipes tax fraud case is any indicator, this could take awhile to resolve...yikes :shock:
 
I was at a party once where they had a "medium." It was so clear she was reading the responses of people to her suggestions and refining them based on how people were reacting, going down avenues they responded to and dropping ones they didn't. I deliberately kept a straight face and made little response to what she said to me and she didn't get anything right.
 
two_left_feet said:
That whole exchange between the reporter and the two mediums shows that people are still being taken in by these con artists in this day and age. These people have private investigators. Before the mediums walked into the DWTS set, they must have checked out the people they were going to meet. Just because the reporter THOUGHT no one would've known her aunt was a gambler doesn't mean this fact can't be discovered. In that whole dialog between the mediums and her, notice how the mediums initiated every topic and basically controlled the whole conversation. Someone should just confront them cold and bring up a topic of their own, or make up one so they can call them bluff later.
Click to expand...

I only sort of disagree - I don't think that investigation was actually necessary for most of this. For example, I bet a pretty substantial fraction of the population has a male relative from one or two generations ago named "something like Harvey, Harry, or Henry," and even more have a golfer in the family. "Tell her she can go to the casino as much as she wants," could be taken a lot of ways - it could seem to be because the aunt was a gambler, as in the story, or that she opposed gambling, or that she liked to take other risks, or that she liked to drive somewhere near a casino... It's very open-ended. I think this is a classic "cold reading" where the credulous subject provided all the necessary responses to make it seem real. I also bet there were some misses that got edited out of the article because the subject didn't remember those parts - only the hits.
 
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