After a five-year investigation, the ACC today took the extraordinary step of issuing a press release saying it was no longer pursuing the pair over their offshore tax arrangements put in place following the success of the Crocodile Dundee movies.
"This decision has been made following a careful process, including obtaining high-level legal advice on some issues," the crime commission said.
Hogan and Cornell have been targets of the nation's $300 million Wickenby tax probe into offshore structures. They have always maintained their innocence and denied any wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, the Crocodile Dundee star was temporarily banned from leaving Australia at the request of the Australian Taxation Office.
The two-week standoff ended on September 3 and the 70-year-old was allowed to return to Los Angeles where he lives with his wife Linda Kozlowski and their son Chance.
It is understood the ATO will not be dropping its probe into Mr Hogan's affairs. An ATO spokesman declined to comment on the case on Tuesday.
In its statement issued today, the crime commission also noted the number of legal challenges Hogan and Cornell had made in relation to the investigation.
"The delay in resolving this long-running investigation hinges on the international complexity of the structures put in place by those who are the subject of the investigation and a clear strategy by those being investigated to legally challenge the ACC's attempt to establish the facts in the case," it said.
The decision was welcomed by Robinson Legal's Andrew Robinson who released a statement vindicating the innocence of his clients.
"After nearly six years of massively costly investigations during which our clients have been routinely branded in the local and international press as 'tax cheats' and 'tax criminals', the news that the ACC has acknowledged that it does not have the basis to continue with a criminal investigation is of immense relief to them," Mr Robinson said today. "It vindicates the position they have taken since the start of this investigation."
"Unfortunately, we have not been able to contact Paul Hogan to give him the news but John Cornell's reaction was: 'that speck in the sky is my hat and I look forward to sampling some of Strop's patented hangover cure tomorrow morning'."
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