Jeane Napoles. SCREENGRAB from Youtube video
The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) Third Division has dismissed the P17-million tax evasion case of Jeane Catherine Napoles, the daughter of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind, Janet Lim-Napoles.
In a Dec. 6 resolution, a copy of which was given to INQUIRER.net by Jeane’s lawyer Ian Encarnacion, the CTA ruled to dismiss her criminal cases numbers O-452 and O-453 due to “insufficiency of evidence.”
Jeane had been accused of failing to pay income taxes from 2011 to 2012 for her alleged ownership of a P54.73 million Ritz Carlton condominium unit in Los Angeles, California, and co-ownership of P1.49-million farm lots in Pangasinan.
Earlier, the younger Napoles argued that the case was already extinguished after the Bureau of Internal Revenue issued on Nov. 29, 2016 a preliminary assessment notice (PAN) imposing a tax on her mother for the said luxury condo unit.
Jean also claimed that she “was just a student with no taxable income and had only received the property as a gift.”
“The prosecution failed to prove that there is any income tax due from accused, creating reasonable doubt as to the guilt of accused,” read the 17-page resolution.
“Accordingly, the Court finds that the evidence presented is not sufficient to sustain a conviction of accused since the prosecution failed to discharge the burden to prove all the essential elements of the crimes attributed to the accused,” it added.
Associate Justices Lovell Bautista penned the resolution, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Esperanza Fabon-Victorino and Ma. Belen Ringpis-Liban. /je
READ: Tax Court to pursue tax evasion case vs Jeane Napoles