This archive report was first published on 6 August 2020.
On August 6, 2020, Chief Magistrate EA Nyaloti discharged six businessmen and their company, UNI Limited, from a Sh42 million tax fraud case.
The businessmen, Philippe Storm, George Zarya, Salil Patel, Ludovic Gunnar, Sunir Doshi, and Anish Doshi, were wrongly identified as directors of XFOR Security Solutions Ltd, the company accused of failing to remit Sh42 million to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
According to their lawyer, Willis Oluga, the dispute started when the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) wrote to the registrar of companies to identify the directors of XFOR Security Solutions Ltd.
However, the registrar of companies mistakenly indicated that UNI Limited, owned by the six traders, was a director of XFOR Security Solutions Ltd.
As a result, the KRA investigators sought information on UNI Limited, which led to the charges against the six businessmen.
Oluga alleged that the investigators were negligent and reckless in their investigation, failing to conduct a thorough search to establish who owned the company.
He also accused the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director of Criminal Investigations of acting unreasonably and in bad faith by charging the traders without due diligence.
Magistrate Nyaloti agreed that it was illegal to prosecute the traders on account of false identity and terminated the case against them.
