Clearing agent charged with Sh 97m tax fraud

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has arraigned a clearing and forwarding agent in court for evading taxes amounting to more than Sh97 million.

The accused, Dickson Ogola, was arraigned before Milimani Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot today facing 12 counts of tax evasion. On the first count, the accused was charged with fraudulent evasion of duty payment amounting to Sh60, 346,144/= contrary to Section 203 (e) of the East African Community Customs Management Act of 2004.

According to the charge sheet presented before Court, Mr Ogola with another accused person before court jointly manipulated invoices for 66 customs entries between January 2012 and August 2018 leading to the loss of revenue. Mr Ogola is further facing another 11 counts of making 63 false customs declarations contrary to Section 203 (b) of the East African Community Customs Management Act 2004.

The eleven offences led to loss of tax revenue to the tune of Sh36,870,838/=. Mr Ogola, who the KRA has been tracking for the past five months, was arrested last Saturday in Nairobi. Prior to Mr Ogola’s arrest, KRA officials had arrested his employee who is the co-accused in this case. Investigations by KRA had revealed that the accused had been contracted by the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church of Kenya to clear an assortment of items on behalf of the Church.

The investigations further indicated that the accused, who owns a non-licensed clearing and forwarding company, has been using various Clearing and Forwarding firms to clear the goods on behalf of the church. An emotional Ogola denied all the charges and was released on Sh 1 million bond with a surety of a similar amount or a Sh 500,000/= cash bail.

The case will be mentioned and heard on 21st January and 30th January, 2019 respectively. KRA remains committed in combating and beating all schemes designed by tax evaders to evade payment of taxes.