Chaudhary says tax problems being resolved

By Mike Kaszuba

Stung by new controversy, this time involving unpaid income taxes, embattled Sen. Satveer Chaudhary said Friday that an agreement had been reached with the IRS to repay the taxes and blamed his wife's former employer for the problem.

Chaudhary posted a statement on his website Friday after the Duluth News Tribune reported that the three-term state senator owed $250,000 in unpaid income taxes. "We have worked closely and diligently with the IRS, which has been very pleasant and understanding during an extremely devastating time," the senator said.

"They have never taken an adverse action against us," he added.

"After nearly two years of hostile gender and age discrimination, wrongful termination of my wife forced the exercise of stock options resulting in past and present tax liability," Chaudhary said. He told the Duluth newspaper that his wife had filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against her employer, Celgene, a biopharmaceutical company, and that part of the damages she was seeking included the tax impact of her dismissal.

The newspaper reported that Chaudhary owed $151,000 in taxes from 2008, and $100,000 from 2007.

Chaudhary criticized the Duluth newspaper on his website, saying the paper should not have published the story "until they had all the facts."

The disclosure comes as Chaudhary, who is facing a strong re-election challenge in the Aug. 10 primary, continues his quest to regain his DFL endorsement, which was stripped away from him late last month. DFL activists in Fridley -- the senator lives in the northern suburb -- took away the endorsement after Chaudhary was involved in a last-minute attempt at the Legislature to get special fishing provisions on a lake near Duluth where he owns a cabin.

Chaudhary, one of Minnesota's leading politicians on outdoors issues, is appealing the action before a high-ranking DFL committee, and a hearing is scheduled for Sunday.

In another sign of his mounting problems, a Senate ethics panel last month publicly admonished the senator over the move, saying in a rare public rebuke of a sitting state senator that Chaudhary had violated "accepted norms of Senate behavior" and had "threatened public confidence" in the Legislature.

"I talked to Satveer [and] he claims that he has reached some agreement with the IRS, or he did last month," attorney Brian Rice said Friday. Rice is representing Chaudhary regarding his DFL endorsement controversy. "[He said] they agreed to the [tax] lien and the matter will be resolved yet this month, where they will satisfy the lien."