Sought after billionaire Humphrey Kariuki surrenders to DCI

Runaway billionaire Humphrey Kariuki came out of the woods on Thursday and presented himself at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters on Thursday almost a week after he went into hiding over claims that his multi-million alcohol business companies have been evading taxes.

On Friday, Capital News reported that that Kariuki together with four directors of his companies were grilled at Mazingira Complex for more than nine hours by a multi-agency team of officers from DCI, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Bank Fraud Investigations Unit and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).

Kariuki and the directors however did not spend the night in cell as investigations into one of Kenya’s biggest tax resistance cases are not yet over.

“They will not spend the night in custody because we’re not yet done with investigations,” Capital News quoted a detective privy to the investigations.

Once investigations into the case are complete, the file will be forwarded to DPP Noordin Haji who will decide whether or not to prefer charges against the maverick billionaire and his associates.

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DCI George Kinoti had ordered Kariuki and the directors to present themselves for grilling today or risk making the situation that it is already was at the time.

Kariuki is reported to have been laying low after his Africa Spirits Limited (ASL) factory in Thika was raided where more than 300,000 litres of smuggled ethanol and 21 million excise stamps were seized.

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Initial police reports indicated that Kariuki was hiding in Zambia but speculation on social media this week was that he was in South Africa.