Chauvin, Wife Hit With Charges Unrelated to George Floyd

The former cop charged with killing George Floyd is facing a new accusation: not paying his taxes. Derek Chauvin and his wife were charged Wednesday with felony tax crimes over his alleged failure to claim more than $460,000 in income dating back to 2014—some $96,000 of which he earned moonlighting as a security officer, the Star Tribune reports. The investigation into Chauvin and his wife Kellie Chauvin apparently predates Floyd's death in May: "The guy owes us money, and I want to collect," says Washington County Attorney Pete Orput. "I don't care about his other problems." Among the nine counts filed against them, the Chauvins are accused of filing false or fraudulent returns and not filing at all in 2016, 2017, and 2018. They reportedly owe almost $38,000.

Seems Chauvin earned between $52,000 and $72,000 per year as a cop and worked security most weekends at bars or food markets; at one bar, he earned almost $96,000 that went tax-free. Meanwhile the Chauvins allegedly bought a new BMW X5 in 2018 for $100,230 in a suburb of Minnesota, then registered it in Florida, where they own a condo, and paid taxes there. Seems they also discussed their tax woes on the phone while he was in custody in June: Derek suggested they use the person "we have used to handle [it] for many years," but Kellie balked, saying "we don't want to get your dad involved because he will just be mad at me, I mean us, for not doing them for years." The tax charges could put them away for five years, per TMZ. (More Derek Chauvin stories.)