Helio Castroneves IRS Trouble – Dancing with Shackles?
Two time Indianapolis 500 winner, Helio Castroneves is facing some tough competition. Unfortunately for him, this competition isn’t in a sleek IndyCar racing into turn one. This is a battle against the big boys. The Internal Revenue Service has indicted him on 6 counts of financial wrongdoing. The Brazilian star was allegedly using off-shore bank accounts and shell corporations to hide his millions. The end of the story is long to be written, but in the short term there are many questions left unanswered. Here’s two of them:
1) Will The Captain, Roger Penske, allow a driver in his stable with a tarnished name? Roger Penske has longed for and only hired the cleanest cut drivers. I find it hard for him to continue Castroneves’ employment if he ends up a Federally Convicted criminal.
2) Is Helio Castroneves really a criminal? I have followed his career since the CART days and there has never been one minute of it where he came across as anything other than legendary; a personality big enough to match the talent. Now, I definitely believe he has made some very bad choices. I think the first bad choice is those who were giving him advice on what to do with his money. We may never truly know to what extent he was involved, but I know there are thousands of HC fans hoping this is a case of bad advice.
If he was doing something wrong, he will be punished. The system has to work that way regardless of who you are. It’s what keeps the scales of justice as even as possible. Let’s just all hope that Helio comes through this having paid his penalty, but relatively unscathed. I find it awfully difficult to believe that he was the mastermind behind this situation. I just hope I am proven right.
And for Helio’s sake…so does he.
[tags]helio castroneves, IndyCar, auto racing, IRS, tax fraud, sports[/tags]
Tags: Auto Racing, Helio Castroneves, IndyCar, IRS, Penske
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