A magistrate court has withdrawn tax evasion charges amounting to Sh17 billion leveled against businessman Stuart Gerald.
Milimani chief magistrate Francis Andayi discharged Gerald following an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to withdraw the charges.
Andayi also directed that the bail Gerald had deposited in court last year be released to him.
The case against the other accused will proceed.
Gerald was last year in August charged alongside businessman Humphrey Kariuki, Peter Njenga Kuria (director, Africa Spirits Ltd), Robert Thinji Murithi (director, Wow), Geofrey Kinoti (director, Africa Spirits) with failing to pay tax.
The charges alleged that then accused deliberately failed to pay taxes, falsified records, omitted records from the Value Added Tax (VAT) and concealed excise stamp duties between February 2016 and December 2018, leading to a tax loss of Sh41 billion.
In other counts, the accused were said to have omitted submitting tax returns of Africa Spirits Ltd totaling Sh18 billion within the same period.
They were all released on Sh22 million bond each with a surety of a similar amount or pay an alternative bail of Sh11 million each.
Gerald however wrote to the DPP asking him to consider reviewing the charges against him after evidence supplied in court showed he was not involved in the tax evasion claims.
Through Odero Osiemo and Company Advocates, Gerald in a letter in October 2019 said he has never been a director or shareholder at Africa Spirits Limited.
The firm said they were supplied with statements and documentary evidence in the case and having gone through the evidence, they noted there is no mention at all against Gerald.
“My client has never drawn a salary or been paid any dividends from the company. Indeed our client does not even know the physical location of the company having never set foot there,” the letter says.
The lawyers asked the DPP to consider reviewing their evidence and if in agreement that it does not mention him, “we would be grateful if you would review the charges against our client and possibly withdraw the same.”
The DPP subsequently withdrew the charges against Gerald.
Gerald has since welcomed the move.
"The lawsuits concern events specific to Africa Spirits’ activity in 2019. I have only ever been a director of Wines of the World and non-executive since 2016. This is what we demonstrated to the ODPP when we applied for review resulting in the acknowledgment that there was no evidence to prosecute me, hence the withdrawal of the charges,” he said in a statement.
