SportPesa’s bank account unfreezed by Kenya’s High Court
SportPesa can now have access to its bank accounts as the High Court in Kenya lifted the restriction placed on it in wake of a Sh30billion transfer investigation
Just a couple of days ago, the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) announced that they will be investigating SportPesa on possible money laundering charges. However, SportPesa claim that all the money earned came from online betting in Kenya.
The freeze heavily affected SportPesa’s numbers and KRA were able to acquire extensions in relation to the freezing orders for 21 days on Sep 11, with a further extension granted on October 5 for 60 days.
However, these orders were cut short due to Pevan’s successful plea that the KRA failed to disclose important information to the court when pursuing ex-parte orders.
Tax collectors are pursuing a tax bill of Sh14.3 billion which can not be collected due to SportPesa’s ‘fraudulent schemes’.
Pevans has countered these claims by insisting that the KRA abused the process by filing new cases. Additionally, the KRA has allegedly failed to disclose that the Sh14.3billion is a combination of various requests made by the revenue authority in 2018 and 2019 for payment of withholding tax on winnings paid to gamblers and various other cases.
However, in a back and forth argument, the KRA stated that there is no need to disclose the other cases as they are not the same. However, Justice Majanja agreed with SportPesa, suggesting that all the mentioned cases have the same building blocks.
“The statutory right of KRA to move to the court ex-parte is accompanied by an implied duty on KRA to disclose to the court all material facts that have a bearing on the matter,” the judge said.
“This duty of candour is fundamental where a party approaches the court for ex-parte orders has been buttressed in a catena of decisions by our superior courts.”
The initial evaluation by the KRA shows that Pevans owes Sh12.3billion in relation to tax with a further penalty of Sh2.4 billion. Therefore, the KRA sought to freeze the company’s bank accounts to be able to investigate allegations of its tax evasion schemes. Pevans’ operating licence was renounced in July 2019 over this tax row, blocking their SportPesa brand that entertains millions of users.
SiGMA website adds French as its 6th language:
SiGMA Group is excited to announce the addition of a 6th language to its website. Users can now find all content, including the SiGMA News website, in French. The latest addition to SiGMA’s portfolio of languages will run alongside the recently launched Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese content, and aims to cater to SiGMA’s wide portfolio of international events.
