Jail time for Angolan over role in VAT refund scam

AN ANGOLAN who pleaded guilty of corruption in a multimillion-dollar value-added tax refund scam was sentenced to an effective prison term of one year and a fine of N$50 000 on Friday.

Paulino Natal (35) admitted on 16 August that in September and October 2015, he corruptly gave documents containing false statements to the company handling VAT refund claims on behalf of the finance ministry in an attempt to claim two VAT refunds, totalling N$230 844.

Natal, who pleaded guilty to two charges under the Anti-Corruption Act, admitted he tried to claim the VAT refunds by falsely stating on a claim form that he had bought car parts in Namibia and exported such to Angola, which would have entitled him to receive a refund of the VAT he had paid in Namibia on the goods.

His two claims were not paid out before his arrest at the end of November 2015. Following his arrest, Natal had already been in jail for more than two years and nine months.

Windhoek High Court judge Boas Usiku sentenced Natal to a fine of N$50 000 or 12 months’ imprisonment, and also to four years’ imprisonment, of which three years were suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of a similar offence, committed during the period of suspension.

Natal’s co-accused and fellow Angolan Eugenio Gourgel (36), who admitted guilt on a charge of fraud, was sentenced to pay a fine of N$30 000 or serve a prison term of six months.

Gourgel was also sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended in full for five years on condition that he is not convicted of fraud committed during the period of suspension.

On his part, Gourgel admitted that he submitted an invoice with an incorrect date to the company Aveshe Consultancy, which administers VAT refund claims on behalf of the finance ministry in September 2015 in a bid to claim a value-added tax refund of N$27 524,74.

With Gourgel arrested and charged at the start of December 2015, the refund was also not paid out.

According to Gourgel, he indeed bought goods in Namibia and exported them to Angola, but he did not submit a VAT refund claim within the stipulated period of three months after he had exported the items.

He informed the court that when he contacted Aveshe Consultancy to enquire about submitting a refund claim, an employee of the company, Mamsy Nuuyoma, advised him to get a new invoice from the supplier of the goods he had exported, and to then submit a claim using the invoice with a new – but incorrect – date.

Gourgel and Natal were charged with 14 other Angolans and two Namibians, including Nuuyoma, but their trial was separated from that of their co-accused before they pleaded to the charges.

With the trial of their former co-accused scheduled to start in the Windhoek High Court in January next year, the other 16 accused have to attend another pretrial hearing on 30 October.

The state is alleging that 15 of the 18 initial accused used forged tax invoices, VAT claim forms and customs documents to fraudulently claim VAT refunds totalling N$210,6 million from the Ministry of Finance from May 2014 to December 2015. The total amount paid out to the 15 Angolans alleged to have fraudulently claimed VAT refunds is about N$34,8 million.

The refund claims are alleged to have been based on false information that goods had been bought in Namibia and then exported, entitling the buyers to a refund of the VAT paid on the goods.

Seven of the Angolans awaiting trial have been kept in custody since their arrest near the end of 2015.

Defence lawyers Kalundu Kamwi and Bradley Basson represented Natal and Gourgel respectively, while the state was represented by deputy prosecutor general Ingrid Husselmann and state advocate Henry Muhongo.