‘Come and get me you miserable bastards,’ Paul Hogan, Australian Crocodile Dundee actor, has challenged the Australian Tax Office (ATO), which has made him a target of its $A300m (₤145m) Operation Wickenby crackdown on tax fraud and evasion.

The ATO has enlisted the help of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in ordering three American banks to hand over nine years of Hogan's bank records, which the actor is fighting, News Limited reports.

Hogan, who has lived in the US for several years, says he has paid plenty of tax to the Australian authorities. ‘They should build a statue of me at the tax office,’ he told Australian television network Ten from his home in Santa Barbara.

Hogan said he has nothing to fear from the ATO, and expected to be back in Australia in September to shoot a new movie. ‘Come and get me,’ he said. ‘Come and get me you miserable bastards.’

Further reading:

Aussie accountant arrested in high profile tax racket

Ex-Aussie cricket captain in tax probe

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