Finally, Gambians are witnessing A series of legal cases before the courts involving two Oil Marketing Companies (Creed Energy,
Ultimate Biege Logistics ) including APOGEE FZC, a Russian petroleum dealer cartel, Access Bank and the Gambia Revenue Authorities which exposes the Russian Petroleum Cartel hold on the petroleum industry as reported a couple of months ago by Open Gambia Platform (OG) in exposing a scandal of Russian Petroleum Trading Cartel and Statehouse actors Monopolising the Petroleum Product markets and controlling GAMPETROLEUM storage facilities.
The legal cases have confirmed the validity of articles published by OG on the malpractices of the Barrow administration, making the country conducive for cartel operations and loss of tax revenue.
BACKGROUND OF THE LAWSUITS!
In the series of lawsuits in the high court between the two oil marketing companies, Creed Energy Limited has sued Access Bank Gambia Limited for transferring a sum of GMD 339,963,424.01 from its account to the account of Ultimate-Beige Logistics Gambia Company Limited without its instructions.
The feud centred on Creed Energy making claims that Mr Aurimas Steiblys, a representative of the Russian company APOGEE FZC, directed Access Bank to establish subaccounts under the name Creed Energy/Apogee FZC in GMD, USD and EURO, designating himself the exclusive signatory for these subaccounts.
APOGEE FZC was unregistered in the Gambia and never held a banking relationship with Access Bank. The bank bears no responsibility to APOGEE FZC concerning the operation of these subaccounts.
Furthermore, In their lawsuit against Access Bank, Creed Energy alleges that the bank transferred D339,963,424.01 of their funds to the account of Ultimate-Beige Logistics, which has hindered the state’s ability to collect taxes owed by Creed Energy Limited for the importation and sale of Diesel in the country, Creed Energy informed the court that the Gambia Revenue Authority is currently investigating its operations to determine the amount of tax payable for the mentioned Diesel transactions.
According to Creed Energy Limited, Access Bank’s actions are perceived as contributing to the obstruction of the state in collecting the rightful taxes owed by the company.
The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) filed a motion (Later dismissed) seeking the High Court’s order to include them as an essential party in the legal proceedings. They argue that they possess a direct interest in the subject matter and will be significantly impacted by the case outcome.
Interesting to note that is behind this backdrop, in early November Open Gambia published an article about the Energy Minister (Abdou Jobe) unveiling a new policy document addressed to “All International Fuel Traders / Depositors / Licensees” titled “GOVERNMENT POLICY TO DEFINE THE LIMIT FOR DEPOSITING, IMPORTATION, AND RE-EXPORT OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS, POLICY It NO. MOPE/GOGP/PP/002”’.
The State House influenced the instructions and implementing regulations to legitimise the operations of this Cartel, disregarding the geopolitical implications of such operations on the Gambia as APOGEE FZC is essentially engaged in busting sanctions imposed on Russia by the USA and its allies.
The new policy seemed tailor-made to legitimise APOGEE FZC’s position and effectively justified the financial arrangement between APOGEE FZC and the Oil Marketing companies, which allows them to deposit funds in their accounts and then to repatriate these out of the country freely.” facilitating money laundering and loss of revenue due to the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA).
The ongoing trials have made it glaring to everyone how the Barrow administration, operating the State of Affairs, in enabling supporting Cartel operations, caused huge final losses to our revenue authorities and proposed massive tax hikes on the poor Gambians instead of taxing the wealthy business.
How did this vast potential tax fraud evade the GRA? Are they protecting the First Lady’s interest, alleged to be a partner with the Russians?
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community! Article contributed by Anon.
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