Prosecutors of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) have sued three defendants for allegedly committing customs and duty tax fraud of 29.4 million Br over 1.3 million bags of cement it imported using franco valuta.
A and G Global Trade and Construction Plc was charged with transferring 1,302,680 bags of cement, which it was allowed to import duty free, to third parties. It imported the cement despite not having a construction licence, the prosecutors alleged.
Mohammed Hussien Abdela, the managing director of the company, was charged for facilitating the transfer to the third parties.
Abdulrashid Abdulkadir Shockado, one of the company's shareholders, whose position in the company is not clear, was charged with ordering the sale of the cement to third parties. Shockado, a Somali national, was also charged with destroying evidence of the company's alleged criminal act.
In the same file, prosecutors also charged the company and Abdela, a Yemeni national with Somali origins, with evading VAT and income tax. The company was charged with evading the payment of VAT in the amount of 14.6 million Br for the 2008/09 fiscal year.
The company falsely reported its income as 30.6 million Br, while it was 92.5 million Br, prosecutors claimed. Mohammed was charged with the same offence as he was the company's managing director at the time the alleged VAT and income tax evasion was committed, prosecutors claimed further.
In a separate charge filed the same day, the company was charged with using the duty-free privileges of a Djibouti based company with a similar name, A and G Global Trade and Logistics FZCO. It was also charged with transferring 1.2 million tonnes of cement it imported to third parties.
Mohammed, who also acted as an agent for the Djiboutian company, was charged with gaining undue tax privileges in the amount of 21.6 million Br. He also transferred 959,232 bags of cement that had been allocated to the Addis Abeba Housing Development Project (AAHDP) to third parties, prosecutors claimed.
Included in the second file, are 13 defendants, including Shockado, charged with various offences for facilitating the transport and sale of the cement, as well as falsely testifying to tax officers about the commissioning of the crime by the company and its managing director.
Gebrezgahbeher Ambaye and Haile Assefa, the 11th and 12th defendants were charged with evading taxes to the tune of 92.8 million Br and 24.1 million Br, respectively.
During the reading of the charges on Thursday, January 6, 2011, only six of the defendants who were represented by eight lawyers requested bail. The remaining defendants were not present in the court as some of them had not received the court summons and the whereabouts of three of the defendants were not known.
The court adjourned the case to February 3, 2011, to decide on the bail request.
No comments:
Post a Comment