While George Bush pisses billions up against the wall in Iraq, US citizens back home are being hunted down and reamed for daring to avoid paying taxes. One of the latest to be lined up by the Inland Revenue Service is 2000 world champ Sunny Garcia, who has been caught for failing to declare more than $400,000 of his winnings while he was on the WCT. Sunny pleaded guilty to evasion in June, and was awaiting sentencing (up to three years in jail and a $ 100,000 fine) on August28...
Sunny, I'm calling about the situation you're in. Care to talk about it?
I don't know what to say. I'm going through hell.
Has it changed you in anyway?
Not really, I've been dealing with this for the last ten years. This (trouble with the taxman) has been going on since before I won the world title. You can imagine having to carry this on my fucking shoulders and compete all these years. It's been a fucking nightmare. I've gotten away with not going to jail my whole fucking career. You look at it another way, and I should have been in jail a long time ago. Why did it take so long? I can't talk about that right now.
What's the prospect of you going into the pen?
More than likely. But I'm not worried about going to jail. Jail is the least of my worries. The only thing I worry about is to make sure that while I'm in jail my wife and kids are taken care of. For me, that's the only thing that really matters.
How are you going to do that?
My sponsors are gonna stick by me, they're gonna help me out. It's all good. There seems to be a lot of stigma in the US about tax evasion.
Is that right?
I dunno. You know, they say there are two things in life that are certain death and taxes. Two things you can fucking count on, man. I can second that opinion. You're gonna do two things in life: you're gonna pay taxes, and you're gonna die.
You're speaking with the wisdom of hindsight. But why did you do it in the first place?Oh, I can get into that after. Trust me, there is nothing I would love to do more than tell my side of the story, but until I've been sentenced, anything I say can and will be used against me.
So how are you spending the next two months?
Well, I just got back from England, watching the Formula one race, and Saturday I'm leaving to go on a boat trip in Indo. I'm definitely not sitting
around fucking moping about it. It's life as usual.
What's your lawyer saying - how long inside?
Well, I'm looking at three years.
The prosecutor's going for the maximum?
I'd rather think I'm going for three years and get less, right?
Here in Australia, we sometimes hear about white-collar crims going to easy jails. What sort of prison are you looking at?
I'll go to a Federal prison, probably. Somewhere in California, near where my wife can drive over.
Federal prisons are pretty bad, aren't they?
(Laughing) No, it'll be like fucking throwing a wolf in the henhouse! I dunno, I've never been to prison. I've heard stories about prison, whatever. I fear no man. I ain't no small guy. I'm not no killer, I'm not no fucking bad guy, but I can fucking hold my own. I'm not looking to go to prison and get into trouble, or be the bull of the prison. I just wanna do my time ''and fucking pay my debt to society, and get out and get on with my life. Ultimately, I'm to blame for what's going on. I've taken the full blame for it. Now I'm paying the consequences.
Well, I know you're supposed to pay taxes. I don't dispute that. All I can say is I was trying to pay my taxes and somewhere down the line things went wrong, and I'm here today.
Sounds like your spirit's not going to be broken, though.
Considering the life that I've lived, where I've come from and stuff, I've made it pretty damn far in my life without going to prison. I guess I was destined to get there sooner or later for some kinda thing, but the last thing I ever thought I'd be going to jail for is taxes. But there's no sense crying over spilt milk. Now I just wanna do whatever time I gotta do and get it behind me. That's all I ever wanted from the beginning.
Thanks Sunny. Good luck on August 28.
Yeah, call me after that, and then I can speak my mind.
I will.
OK. Take care. .
