First Mackey now D’Aguilar Defrauded Da People?
Photo shows Freetown candidate Dionisio D’Aguilar whose office remains close like so many FNM constituency offices.
STATEMENT
BY
BRADLEY B. ROBERTS NATIONAL CHAIR
PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL PARTY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23RD APRIL 2017
D’AGUILAR CAUGHT RED-HANDED WITH BOTH HANDS IN THE COOKIE JAR
Click here to download the invoices and related documents..
Dionisio D’Aguilar, owner of Super Wash, has been nominated by the FNM to contest the Freetown Constituency. He has been a strong critic of the Christie PLP Administration, repeatedly accusing the PLP government of corruption. He was also a strong critic of VAT and said the government could have done a better job of collecting existing taxes.
While waging war against and criticizing the PLP government on collecting taxes, D’Aguilar was caught red handed in 2013 falsifying invoices #’s 8028636111, 8028636112 and 8028662205, dated 20th and 21st Nov 2013 from the Whirlpool Corporation in Benton Harbour MI.
The attached pieces of evidence show that Mr. D’Aguilar knowingly and fraudulently altered the original invoices duly issued by the Whirlpool Corporation on a shipment of 27 Commercial Washing Machines. The alterations included freight costs, customs duties, processing fees and environmental levies. The duty entry with the declared value of the imported goods submitted to the Bahamas Customs Department by Super Wash totaled $104,853.90.
An astute Customs Officer sensed that something was wrong, made the necessary inquiries and was able to obtain the correct and true invoices from the Whirlpool Corporation which totaled $183,195.00 and the correct customs duty was assessed at $183,195;00. Had the intervention of the Officer not been made, the Importer would have defrauded the Public Treasury of $35,253.45. I am advised that D’Aguilar was fined $15,000.00 for submitting a false declaration but under the Customs Management Act, he could have been fined up to three times the value of the correct invoice which equates to $540,000. He signed the requisite Bahamas Customs Form NO. C52 “REQUEST FOR COMPOUNDING OF AN OFFENCE” which is an admission of fraud to the Bahamas Customs Department. The document was executed on 29th January 2014.
I take no glee or pleasure in disclosing this information which clearly paints D’Aguilar as corrupt, greedy, dishonest and with a penchant for double speak. He declared net assets of a whopping $29,341,093, but with forethought and deliberateness, caused for the falsification of three invoices and then the submission of the same to the Bahamas Customs Department to further enrich himself on the backs of struggling Bahamians who struggle to pay their taxes every day. Mr. D’Aguilar declared $1,260,000 in personal income annually. This is disgraceful.
This the same Dionisio D’Aguilar who accused Bahamians of begging too much. Should Bahamians accuse D’Aguilar of ‘tiefin’ too much?!
I publicly call on Mr. D’Aguilar to come clean with the Bahamian people and state whether or not there are any other false declarations submitted by any of his companies to the Bahamas Customs Department. The public needs to know.
By his actions, Dionisio D’Aguilar has out rightly disqualified himself for the honourable office he seeks. I call on the good people of Freetown to reject Dionisio D’Aguilar on the 10th May 2017 as he is not a fit and proper person to sit in the honourable House of Assembly.
As a former president of the Chamber of Commerce, Dionisio D’Aguilar joins another former Chamber of Commerce president who conspired to defraud the Bahamas government of duly owed taxes and was forced to resign in disgrace.
Stay tuned for Howard Rickey Mackey on Wednesday.
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