Akashas facilitated Armenians activities
By MAXWELL MASAVA, EMMANUEL ONYANGO
Kenya Times, Kenya
July 19 2006
THE name of the Akasha family yesterday featured prominently at the
Kiruki Commission of Inquiry as a witness recounted how its member
helped the Armenian brothers acquire Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)
pin numbers.
Sammy Mutinda, an accountant who helped the Arturs acquire pin
numbers narrated that it was a member of the Akashas who went to his
office in Westlands on behalf of the Artur brothers to request for
the processing of their pin numbers. The request is claimed to have
been lodged sometime in October last year.
He told the Commission that he served the family of Ibrahim Akasha
as an accountant for many years and he had no reason to doubt their
foreign friends who were interested in investing in the country.
According to his testimony, he never met the Arturs and they requested
for the application forms in absentia.
The Akasha family is prominently linked to drug trafficking. The elder
Akasha, Ibrahim, was shot dead in the Netherlands in what was suspected
to be hitmen probably hired by people linked to drug trafficking
deals. His son Kamaldin was also murdered in Mombasa a few years later.
According to the testimony, Akasha went to Mutinda~Rs office situated
in Westlands and introduced the two–Artur Margaryan and Artur
Sargasyan–as his friends and business partners in vehicle spare
parts. He provided two application forms to the Akasha which were
returned after two weeks.
The witness narrated to the commission that it was Akasha who paid
for the application forms after they were returned. The forms had
been fully filled by the applicants.
But surprisingly, the two-week period was not explained as officials
at the Kenya Revenue Authority later narrated that the issuance of
the pin numbers was done in a day. The applications which were done
in October 2005 also indicated that the two brothers had signed the
forms personally, contradicting earlier evidence that they had arrived
in the country in November of the same year.
Before they were deported last month, Artur Margaryan often referred
to one of the Akasha sons as ~Sa big boy with baby brain~T during
press conferences. Some of the vehicles found within the Arturs Runda
residence were said to belong to the Akashas.
Mukinda in his evidence told the commission that he had come to trust
the Akashas and would be invited by the family to advise them on
financial matters and guide their accountant on book keeping. That
was when the family had a garage in Ruaraka.
~SMy lords I never handed the pin numbers to them (Arturs) but to
Akasha who was to forward them,~T said the witness who was being
guided by his lawyer, Jackson Omwenga. He also exonerated himself
from the blame saying KRA must be held responsible for the issuance
of pin numbers.
Mutinda who gave out the forms without seeing the purported investors
said he expected the applicants to fill in details before returning.
He told the commission that he was acting as an agent and would assist
clients acquire pin numbers from any part of the world. The witness
even provided his office address to be used by the Artur brothers at
that time.
~SMy lords am happy to recruit tax payers for the government,~T he
justified his role when pressed by a lawyer, Jane Ondieki, appearing
for the suspended CID Director Joseph Kamau. The lawyer had accused
the witness of being the cause of all problems behind Arturs~R presence
in the country.
However, duplicate application forms which were brought to the
Commission by assisting counsel indicated that the two brothers were
given pin numbers as civil servants. The application forms which
were denounced by Mutinda and KRA officials were said to have been
processed and worked on within a day.
Mutinda claimed that the pin numbers which he assisted the Arturs to
acquire were genuine and denied having seen the duplicate forms that
enabled the deported brothers to have two more fake pin numbers.
Benard Mukenya, an assistant revenue officer in charge of pin number
issuance said the application forms from the Arturs were presented
without proper identification as required. They were said to have
presented two varying applications and in return managed to get two
sets of pin numbers. In the application forwarded by Mutinda, the
Arturs ticked themselves as employees of undislosed companies while
in the fake application, they presented themselves as civil servants.
The Commission was told that the officer who was in charge of issuing
the pin numbers to the Arturs has since resigned from service. Tom
Mboya, the officer who issued the numbers resigned from mid May this
year, according to testimonies.
David Mala, an assistant revenue commissioner at the Domestic Tax
Department told the commission that the numbers they had originally
given to the Artur brothers were not the same as the other two which
had been presented before the commission. However, both forms were
signed by a senior revenue official identified as Andrew Okello.
~SMy lords the forms with civil service numbers do not exist in our
records,~T said Mala as he maintained that KRA records only reflect
a set of pin numbers defining the two brothers as employees.
The brothers had also managed to register double pin numbers for
their companies including Brotherlink International Limited and the
Kensington Holdings Limited.
It also emerged from other witnesses of the day that the Armenian
brothers had lied when they registered companies associated with
them. The two brothers evaded paying stamp duty according to three
witnesses who testified yesterday afternoon.
Ahmed Omar, a chief cashier with National Bank of Kenya disowned a
stamp duty receipt purported to have been paid and received by teller
number 11 at the bank~Rs Hill Branch. Omar said the alleged branch has
no teller number 11 and there was no cashier on that particular day.
The receipt had no signature as required.
Another witness, Mr. Joseph Mwangi, an operations manager at Kenya
Commercial Bank, Moi Avenue branch, said stamp duty for Kensington
Holdings Limited was never paid through the bank as it had been
purported.
In fact City Bank which was portrayed as having received the money
had been closed a month earlier as opposed to the date on KCB receipts.
The bank was closed on December 19, 2005 while the payment was
indicated as having taken place on January 12, 2006.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
