HAPPIER TIMES The Department of Justice has found probable cause to indict businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and her husband Jimmy for evading the payment of taxes amounting to P60million. INQUIRERPHOTO
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recommended the filing of a P60-million tax evasion case against alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and her husband Jaime for allegedly failing to pay their taxes from 2004 to 2012.
In an 18-page resolution dated March 13 but released only yesterday, Prosecutors Stewart Allan Mariano, Mark Roland Estepa and Susan Dacanay found probable cause to file charges of violations of Section 254 and 255 of the National Internal Revenue Code against the couple.
The prosecutors backed the allegation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that Napoles owed P44,711,147.48 in income taxes in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 while Jaime owed P16,470,402.72 for the same years.
The couple were additionally charged with failing to file their income tax returns (ITRs)—Napoles for 2010, 2011 and 2012 and Jaime for 2009.
Napoles is under detention in connection with the alleged P10-billion diversion of congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund, or pork barrel, to ghost projects and fake foundations. Jaime Napoles is a retired Marine major.
In its complaint, the BIR said the spouses were able to purchase real properties, vehicles, insurance policies and club shares, as well as invested tens of millions of pesos in various corporations.
The BIR said the couple could not have “conceivably acquired” their properties and investments, given the income they stated in their ITRs. The couple’s net taxable income from the ITRs they filed from 1999 to 2009 did not exceed P800,000 annually, it said.
Among the acquisitions made by the couple were their condominium units at City & Land Mega Plaza and The Discovery Center in Ortigas, worth P1.77 million and P9.19 million, respectively; land in Bayambang, Pangasinan province, worth P13.544 million; and life insurance plans from Philippine American Life & General Insurance Co., Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd. and Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp., with annual premiums ranging from P30,000 to P5 million.
The couple also made investments, either as incorporators or contributors, in a restaurant, two charity foundations, a construction firm, and four other corporations, as well as the family-owned JLN Corp., ranging from P100,000 to P2 million.
The Napoleses also bought shares in Manila Polo Club worth P4 million and bought three luxury cars, a Ford Lincoln Navigator, a Honda Civic worth P1.1 million and a Porsche Cayenne worth P2.3 million.
The BIR claimed that the funds used to acquire the properties and make the investments “represent unreported income” and could only mean that they failed to pay correct taxes and underdeclared their income.
Nuisance suit
In their joint counteraffidavit, the couple denied the allegations against them and argued that there was malicious intent in the BIR’s filing of the complaint. They said the cases were a mere “nuisance suit” meant to harass them and without legal or factual basis.
The DOJ prosecutors, however, said that from the evidence presented by the BIR, primarily the ITRs and the other documents, “there could be no iota of doubt that there exists probable cause” to indict the couple.
“The findings of the BIR resulted in conclusive, material and eloquent proof that the expenditures of respondent spouses were grossly disproportionate to their incomes, as reflected and declared in their ITRs,” they added.
“The commission of the crime is complete when the false or fraudulent tax return has been filed,” they said. “What is most apparent is that, in essence, the filing of the ITRs, or the omission thereof, reflect the obvious and malicious criminal intent of respondent spouses to defraud the government by evading the payment of taxes due.” Jerome Aning