The Eighth Criminal Bench of the Federal High Court, Lideta Division, on May 22, passed a 12-year sentence against Ayalew Tessema founder and CEO of Ayat S.C. and a 90-million birr fine against the company.
Apart from that, construction machinery worth some 86 million birr was ordered to be confiscated.
It can be recalled that prosecutors of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) requested court to hand down a 3-billion-birr fine against Ayat S.C. and a 79-year jail term and a 2.7-million-birr fine Ayalew, who were found guilty of multiple counts of crime by the court on March 11.
According to the federal court's decision, the share company has been fined 90,091,270 birr while Ayalew will pay 3,235,543.50 birr in fine.
In a submission on sentencing dated April 17, the prosecutors asked the court that the share company pay over 3 billion birr in fine for violating a raft of banking and monetary legislations, the Value Added Tax, Income Tax and Customs proclamations as well as the Criminal Code.
Ayat was found guilty on 8 counts.
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