BUDAPEST—According to the deepsabrina.com blog, world-renown porn star Rocco Siffredi is being investigated by Italian authorities for alleged tax evasion.
Although Siffredi has lived in Budapest for several years, Italian authorities contend that his principal place of business remains in Italy, and have told the Italian press that they believe Siffredi has hidden hundreds of thousands of Euros in income. Depending on the exact amount the authorities claim he owes, Siffredi could face both fines and jail time.
Siffredi is currently filming in the U.S., but was not available for comment, and his releasing company, Evil Angel Productions, also had no comment on the situation, saying that they consider the matter to be personal and having nothing to do with Siffredi's relationship to Evil Angel.
However, Evil Angel general manager Chris Mann was able to reach Siffredi briefly by cell phone, and was able to get a short statement from the star.
"I just spoke to Rocco personally," Mann said. "He's aware of this situation as is his lawyer in Europe. The suggestion that he is somehow still residing in Italy is absolutely false. He's not the only well-known person in Italy facing this type of investigation because right now the government is going after celebrities to emphasize the importance of their tax amnesty program to all the other taxpayers. Rocco and his lawyer both note that the presence of an investigation in and of itself doesn't mean anything. They're not unreasonably alarmed, and lots of things get investigated that lead to nothing. The only thing that one should surmise from the investigation is that Rocco is a well-known celebrity in Italy."
A knowledgeable source noted that Siffredi recently transferred the copyrights to his productions from one company owned by him to another newly-formed company shortly after he moved to Budapest in 2005, but the source doubted that the changeover was tax-related.
Check back with AVN.com for more details as they become available.
