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City billionaire Humphrey Kariuki may have dodged Sh6bn taxes


Billionaire Humphrey Kariuki’s troubles seemed to deepen Tuesday when the Kenya Revenue Authority and police said a liquor firm associated with him could have dodged taxes amounting to Sh6 billion.

The money was calculated based on the number of stamps that African Spirits Ltd officially picked up from the KRA over the years but it has yet to remit the taxes from the products sold.

Mr Kariuki’s London-based lawyers describe him as a “venture investor” and say he neither holds directorship nor managerial positions at the company.

On Tuesday, Mr Kariuki drove once again to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on Kiambu Road for interrogation — spending several hours with sleuths who want to unpack his life and shed light on a company he has invested hundreds of millions of shillings in.

FOUR KENYAN PASSPORTS

The detectives are not only concerned with his Cypriot passport — number K0627485, which was issued on May 19, 2016 and which he has not handed in, according to DCI head George Kinoti — but also on four Kenyan passports the billionaire has held.

“We want to have a history of his movements and check when they expired — if they have,” Mr Kinoti said.

“We have given him up to Wednesday to bring them.”

Last week, Mr Kinoti told the Nation that records from the Immigration Department indicate that the Blue Moon vodka billionaire did not inform the government about his dual citizenship as required by the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act.

According to the law, one is to declare and record his or her acquired citizenship in the prescribed manner within three months of becoming a dual citizen.

DUAL CITIZENSHIP

The law further says that anyone who fails to disclose the dual citizenship “commits an offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding Sh5 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both”.

The tycoon’s troubles started after the discovery of smuggled ethanol, some 312,000 litres of illicit liquor and 21 million fake KRA stamps at the Thika-based African Spirits Ltd on January 31.

In a statement published on the company’s website, African Spirits admitted that KRA is investigating a “tax dispute”.

Read the full story here.

SOURCE: Daily Nation