Derek Chauvin's ex-wife pleads guilty to tax evasion

The ex-wife of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer imprisoned for murdering George Floyd, pleaded guilty to felony tax-evasion charges in Washington County District Court on Friday morning.

Kellie Chauvin and her ex-husband, who is serving a 22½-year prison sentence in Arizona for killing Floyd and violating his civil rights, were originally charged with nine felony counts of tax evasion. Charges accuse them of underreporting more than $464,000 in income and owing the government nearly $38,000. They pleaded not guilty in November 2021, but she changed her plea Friday, admitting to two counts of aiding and abetting tax evasion.

The charges were filed in July 2020 after Floyd's murder, but Washington County had been sending the Chauvins letters about tax and income discrepancies since 2019 with no response.

District Judge Sheridan Hawley accepted Kellie Chauvin's plea and set a sentencing date for May 12. With the plea deal, her attorney, Eric Olson, is requesting three years' probation.

Kellie Chauvin worked as a real estate agent and ran a photography business. She filed for divorce two days after Derek Chauvin was charged with killing Floyd on May 25, 2020. The divorce was finalized in February 2021 under a sealed order. Kellie Chauvin has since indicated her intent to change her name to a common Hmong name for her protection.

Hawley asked her how she is guilty of aiding and abetting her ex-husband.

"During my marriage with Derek, he was the main person in our marriage to take care of our finances and file the taxes," Kellie Chauvin said.

She agreed to signing the taxes. But when Hawley asked if she made any effort to determine if taxes had been filed, Kellie Chauvin said, "No, I allowed Derek to take care of all of that." But later asked again by Hawley if she asked her then-husband whether taxes had been filed, she said yes.

"Did he lie to you, or did you know he wasn't filing them?" Hawley asked.

"He said he was going to be on it," Chauvin said.

She said she filed tax returns before being married and that during her marriage they were jointly filed. After a series of questions from the judge, her attorney and Assistant Washington County Attorney Scott Haldeman, Kellie Chauvin agreed that she willfully attempted to evade tax laws.

Derek Chauvin was scheduled to appear remotely from Tucson after his ex-wife's plea hearing, but it was rescheduled to March 17 because of technical issues. Hawley said the prison can't get Zoom virtual videoconferencing to work. He was present over audio while his attorney Eric Nelson appeared on video.

Though Haldeman said he was OK proceeding without video, Hawley said that since courts started remote hearings during the pandemic, the law requires video.

"The rule is I have to be able to see him and he has to be able to see me on a felony," she said.

The felony charges are identical for Derek and Kellie Chauvin. There are six involving aiding and abetting false or fraudulent returns starting with the 2014 tax year. The others allege not filing taxes for 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The charges cite various sources of income for them. Between 2014 and 2019, Derek Chauvin made $52,000 to $72,000 annually as a police officer. He also worked off-duty security nearly every weekend in that time at El Nuevo Rodeo dance club, Cub Foods, Midtown Global Market and EME Antro Bar on E. Lake Street.

During that span, investigators estimated that Chauvin failed to pay taxes on nearly $96,000 he earned from El Nuevo Rodeo alone.

Kellie Chauvin told investigators that she had not prepared the returns because "it got away" from her, according to court documents. She was accompanied by an accountant who provided income tax returns for 2016 to 2019, but they appeared incomplete or estimated.

Among the allegations, prosecutors say the Chauvins bought a new BMW X5 in January 2018 for $100,230 from a Minnetonka dealership and registered the SUV in Florida, where they paid $4,664 in taxes in that state. They own a condo outside Orlando.

The BMW was serviced 11 times in Minnetonka and never in Florida, investigators say. Kellie Chauvin told investigators they opted for Florida because it was less expensive.

Derek Chauvin's father, an accountant who prepared their 2014 and 2015 tax returns based on information they provided him, told investigators that he filed an extension to do their 2016 returns, but that they never provided him with the information to complete them.

One day after their Oakdale home was searched, Kellie Chauvin called Derek Chauvin at the prison where he is being held, according to the charges. During the call, she told him that their unfiled tax returns were being investigated.

Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.