STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — After nearly a decade under investigation, Private Media Group chairman, president and chief executive officer Berth Milton has been hit with a back-taxes bill amounting to 865 million kroner (about $100 million U.S.).Milton called the accounting, handed down by the Stockholm County Administrative Court, a “fantasy sum” and said he will appeal the ruling.
“The county administrative court is like the tax agency’s right hand, and so far we’ve won everything in the administrative court of appeal,” Milton told The Local, Sweden’s English-language newspaper.
Milton was unrestrained in taking to task local taxation authorities for what he said he considers a bias against adult entertainment.
“If I sold refrigerators, none of this would have happened,” he told The Local. “It’s only because I’m involved with pornography [that they think I’ve underpaid my taxes]. They can’t handle that I manage a pornography company in a legal manner.”
According to Sweden’s Tax Office, Milton earned approximately 1.35 billion kroner between 1996 and 1999. He paid taxes on only a small portion of the income, officials said.
The tax burden was incurred prior to Milton’s appointment to the top spot at Private. From 1990 until 1999, Milton administered his family’s pornography business, Milcap Media Group, following in his father’s footsteps. He still serves the company as a consultant.
