Crocodile Dundee Missing $34M, Actor Paul Hogan Tracks Down Thief
Australian actor Paul Hogan, also known as Crocodile Dundee, is missing $34 million dollars after his former accountant was accused of stealing the money and fleeing to Europe.
The 73-year-old actor, who brought delight with the 1986 movie with the same name, filed a lawsuit in a United States court as he tries to recover his $34 million that is currently in a Swiss bank account.
Reports indicate that there is already an international warrant out for financial adviser Philip Egglishaw, the man otherwise known as the "bowler hat Englishman," according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
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Hogan's advisers in the US accuse Egglishaw, who set up elaborate corporate structures in various tax havens to help clients evade being taxed, of stealing Hogan's money.
U.S. lawyer Schuyler Moore, who is representing Hogan, sent correspondence to Egglishaw's lawyer in Geneva, Paul Gully-Hart, warning of severe consequences should the money not be returned.
"The actions of Egglishaw have now crossed the boundary of legality, and he is now engaging in criminal fraud, theft, and breach of fiduciary duty, and you are now directly aiding and abetting his criminal actions," according to the letter published in the Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche.
"The Carthage Trust's beneficiary [Hogan] is not going to stand idly by in the face of this theft, and he is going to take every step possible in every country possible to hold Egglishaw, Strachans, you, and your firm liable and brought to account," the attorney continued.
For the last 12 months there have been no bank statements or accounts relating to the millions in the Carthage Trust, and since the account was established by Egglishaw, Hogan has no access to the funds.
There was another individual involved who was the other signatory to the Carthage Trust. Philip de Figueiredo is serving a 2-and-a-half year sentence in Australia after he was found guilty of conspiring to defraud the Australian government of more than $4 million. De Figueiredo was Egglishaw's former business partner.
