When KRA stumbled upon a lorry that was carrying illicit ethanol, hidden under sacks of maize, Flying squad officers raided African spirits in Thika and unleashed a multibillion racket that is said could amount to Sh6 billion of lost revenue.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations later launched a hunt for one of the country’s most reclusive tycoons on suspicion of evading taxes.
But Karuiki had left the country. To where?
It was first believed the billionaire was in Zambia
Police had earlier said the businessman had fled to Zambia, the veracity of the version is being challenged after it emerged that his private jet, a Bombardier Challenger 350, left Nairobi at 05.01 pm on Sunday 11 2019, arriving in Lanseria, South Africa three hours and 57 minutes later at 07.57pm.
It was later that police learnt that the flight risk tycoon was in South Africa after activist Boniface Mwangi tracked the flight on flightaware.com.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has obtained orders freezing 11 accounts associated with businessman Humphrey Kariuki over alleged tax evasion amounting to Sh3 billion.
The accounts are scattered in seven banks, including Equity, National Bank of Kenya and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), and are linked to three companies associated with Mr Kariuki.
KRA, through lawyer Kenneth Kirugi, told Justice John Onyiego that preliminary investigations indicated that the companies – Vow Beverages Limited, Wines of the World Ltd and African Spirits Ltd – had evaded tax amounting to Sh3 billion.
Documents filed in court indicated the companies had been supplying excisable goods with counterfeit exercise stamps.
The taxman further alleged the companies had fraudulently denied the agency collection of colossal amounts of tax. Justice Onyiego certified the case as urgent and directed Mr Kirugi to serve the documents to the companies ahead of the hearing on March 8.