Brian Waluchio, who is a co-director of Oxygen 8 East Africa, has told the court that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Immigration Department have denied him permission to leave the country despite a magistrate’s court retuning his passport to allow him travel for business.
Oxygen 8 East Africa and Mr Waluchio were charged in court on November 23 for defaulting in payment of Sh522 million tax.
He was ordered to deposit his passport in court as part of the bail terms. However, the Makadara Magistrate’s court allowed him to get his passport and travel for business.
A director of a firm that is at the centre of a Sh1 billion tax evasion probe has been barred from travelling outside the country.
Brian Waluchio, who is a co-director of Oxygen 8 East Africa, has told the court that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Immigration Department have denied him permission to leave the country despite a magistrate’s court retuning his passport to allow him travel for business.
Oxygen 8 East Africa, a digital firm with UK roots, is being probed by the taxman over alleged formation of a dummy company disguised as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), causing the taxman more than Sh1 billion in revenue loss.
The KRA says in court documents that its investigators have unearthed a fraudulent scheme through which staff in the company’s local subsidiary have been diverting tax payments to a private firm named as Keycorp Real Advisory (KRA), disguised to look like the taxman.
Oxygen 8 East Africa and Mr Waluchio were charged in court on November 23 for defaulting in payment of Sh522 million tax.
He was ordered to deposit his passport in court as part of the bail terms. However, the Makadara Magistrate’s court allowed him to get his passport and travel for business.
Upon arrival at the airport he was denied exit and has now filed an application at the High court seeking to be allowed to leave the country.
“Unless the court…compels the respondents to lift the travel ban, the petitioner will be grounded economically, thereby being incapable of servicing his mortgage facility, fending for his family and even paying for taxes that the first respondent is mandated to collect,” says Mr Waluchio in court filings.
He has listed KRA and the Director of Immigration services as respondents.
Mr Waluchio accuses KRA and the Director of Immigration of discriminating against him by allowing his co-director, Mr Shane Leah, to travel.
He claims that the KRA and the director of immigration have allowed his co-director Mr Leah to work in Kenya without a valid work permit.
Details of the alleged tax fraud have been laid bare in a suit the proprietor of the dummy company has filed after they were arrested, charged and their bank accounts frozen.
Keycorp Real Advisory’s initials, KRA, were made similar to that of the taxman. Oxygen8 is a digital company that deals in text message (SMS) value-added services and mobile financial services.
Oxygen 8 Kenya Limited’s parent firm Oxygen 8 Group Limited has opted to co-operate with the taxman.
Mr Leahy who also serves as CEO of Oxygen 8 Group has shared a preliminary report with KRA and told the taxman that Mr Waluchio is no longer an employee of Oxygen 8 East Africa, but remains a shareholder with a 20 per cent stake.
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