This archive report was first published on 7 May 2020.
Investigations into the theft of Sh120 million mobile phones have taken a surprising turn, with detectives now focusing on the owners of the recovered stolen gadgets for a possible tax evasion of Sh5 billion.
According to sources, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) detectives and customs officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) are probing allegations of tax evasion through the importation of undervalued and undeclared goods.
The DCI sleuths and customs officials are seeking to establish if the owners of Rolling Cargo Company deliberately under-declared the consignments or smuggled taxable products.
On April 9, 2020, Rolling Cargo Company reported to police that their cargo of 750 cartons of Infinix phones had been stolen on transit from the African Cargo at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to their warehouse in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
However, detectives, on a fact-finding mission on contraband electronic goods at the African Cargo facility on Monday, stumbled on another consignment of electronic goods, mainly mobile phones, that had just been imported.
Forensic experts from the Economic Crime Unit are combing through the firm’s records and contracts with various traders from Nairobi’s City Centre, Eastleigh and Mombasa.
Custom officials claim the goods had been undervalued to evade levies due to the government blaming the practice on “an organized cartel” that has been defrauding the government and in the process denying it taxes running into hundreds of millions of shillings.
Rolling Cargo officials have denied the claims, saying they are ready for investigations and maintaining they had paid all due bills.
