Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has been locked in Kshs1 billion turf with an impostor company labeled Keycorp Real Advisory (KRA).
In court documents, KRA claimed that Oxygen 8 East Africa created Keycorp as a dummy company that collected taxes from its employees while disguising itself as the taxman.
KRA further claimed that Oxygen 8 intentionally created company’s initials to match those of itself for an easier diversion of tax funds.
In the affidavit, the taxman stated that the revelation started as a tax assessment and demand of Kshs49 million which ballooned into a more than Kshs1 billion fraudulent scheme.
Oxygen 8 East Africa and its director, Brian Waluchio, were also sued and charged with defaulting to pay Kshs522 million in taxes.
According to reports, the taxman has since intercepted part of the cash and some accounts frozen.
Oxygen 8, a digital company, deals in Short Text Message service (SMS) value-added services and mobile financial services.
Oxygen 8 Group, the parent company of Oxygen 8 East Africa, is headquartered in the United Kingdom with offices in Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Kenya among others.
In an attempt to boost the company’s rapport with KRA, Oxygen 8 Group CEO Shane Leah shared preliminary report explaining that Waluchio was no longer working with Oxygen 8 East Africa.