Judge Jose Alejandro Vargas of the National District ordered three months preventive custody measures including house arrest, bail of RD$5 million, use of electronic bracelet and travel abroad ban against businessman Luis Jose Asilis who is accused of tax fraud, criminal association, forgery of documents and money laundering.
Among the most serious of the charges made by the taxation agency, DGII is that of reporting taxes to simulate that he was complying with the law, but in the end he was not paying them. He is also accused of declaring to the DGII the company retentions, and then interrupting commercial operations for tax periods to pretend that there was no tax payable income, which is fraud.
Asilis is a major shareholder in Grupo Metro that includes the Metro bus company, Metro Country Club and of the Metro transport business as well as the Lajun Corporation that ran the Duquesa garbage dump until it was taken over by the Ministry of the Environment. He also supposedly used other of his companies to simulate that he did not have control of those that had tax liabilities thus trying to evade his fiscal responsibilities. In addition Asilis is said to have increased his personal wealth by transferring real estate from the Metro Country Club to himself.
Asilis had been under arrest at the Justice Palace in Ciudad Nueva. His lawyers told Diario Libre that their client had offered to make a payment of RD$357 million to the tax agency (DGII) but this was not accepted. The DGII has stated that the businessman owes more than RD$500 million and in the past year has not paid RD$28.4 million in ITBIS and income tax charges.
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Diario Digital
El Nuevo Diario
Diario Libre
21 August 2018
