The office of the Director of Criminal Investigations, on Friday, launched a manhunt for billionaire Humphrey Kariuki, the owner of Africa Spirits Company based in Thika.
The tycoon is wanted over allegations of evading paying taxes amounting to Kshs 3 Billion.
According to Nation, Kariuki and other top managers vanished when they learnt that sleuths from the DCI and the police service had raided their company.
Inspector General Joseph Boinnet and DCI head George Kinoti were among the team of detectives who, on Friday, descended on the company and seized fake and counterfeit products worth Ksh1.2 billion.
Reports from KRA stated that the goods included an estimated 21 million counterfeit excise stamps and 312,000 litres of illicit products.
“We found about 21 million counterfeit stamps at the factory. That means the commission would have lost Kshs1.2 Billion. In one production shift, the amount of tax lost is about Kshs93 Million,” stated Kenya Revenue Authority commissioner Githii Mburu.
DCI Kinoti also ordered his detectives to probe how the businessman has been smuggling ethanol from Tanzania bleeding the country of a lucrative revenue stream.
“We want to establish the exact components used in making the concentrates, their sources as well as quantities,” ordered Kinoti.
According to Githii, the country loses close to KShs 4 Million for every 20,000 litres of ethanol smuggled into Kenya.
Boinnet confirmed that one of the factory’s production manager was arraigned in court and detained for seven days to facilitate further investigations.
