London Distillers Kenya Limited Director Mohan Galot was on Wednesday morning arraigned at Milimani Law Courts before Magistrate Martha Mutuku over 2.1 billion tax evasion shillings.

Galot is facing a total of 18 counts among them failure to pay taxes contrary to Section 95 as read with section 104(1) of the Tax Procedures Act, 2015.

He pleaded not guity to all the counts and released on a cash bail of 1 million shillings and the case will be mention on August 9th of this year.

In the first count, Galot, being the director of London Distillers Kenya Limited, between January 2016 and December 31, 2016, allegedly illegally omitted from excise Duty returns for the year 2016 of production volumes totaling 164, 539 litres of ready to drinks and 2,902,662 of spirits which ought to have been declared to the commissioners as required by the Excise Duty Act 23 of 2015 laws of Kenya.

Mohan Galot. PHOTO/COURTESY

In the second offence of omitting from returns, according to the charge sheet, he also faces charges of omitting from tax returns production volumes and sales amounts contrary to section 97 (a) as read with section 104 (3) of the Tax Procedures Act, 2015.

A probe into London Distillers (K) Limited found that the firm and its director devised a scheme to evade taxes, including Excise duty on locally manufactured spirits, VAT and Corporation taxes.

Investigations revealed that the Taxpayer engaged in a scheme of gross under-reporting of production and sales volumes and purchase of packaging materials through associated firms.

Galot was released on a Sh1. million cash bail after pleading not guilty to the Sh2.1b tax evasion charges.