{"id":26991,"date":"2012-11-20T17:30:24","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T15:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=26991"},"modified":"2012-11-21T08:44:52","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T06:44:52","slug":"mtn-denies-dabengwa-court-appearance-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/26991\/mtn-denies-dabengwa-court-appearance-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN denies Dabengwa court appearance reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"MTN Group\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1640-MTN-Group\">MTN Group<\/a> has denied that its CEO and president, <a title=\"Sifiso Dabengwa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1729-Sifiso-Dabengwa\">Sifiso Dabengwa<\/a>, along with other senior managers have been summoned by a Ugandan court to face tax fraud charges, as reported by Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>The international media company wrote that Dabengwa and 12 officials including the chairperson and CEO of MTN&#8217;s Ugandan unit were ordered to appear in court on December 12 to face charges of tax evasion, conspiracy to make false customs declarations and conspiracy to evade taxes,.<\/p>\n<p>This, said Reuters, is according to a November 7 summons issued by the Buganda Road Court.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Paul Norman\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/6161-Paul-Norman\">Paul Norman<\/a>, MTN Group chief HR and corporate affairs officer said in a statement: \u201cMTN Uganda categorically denies malicious media reports that its directors, including Group President and CEO Sifiso Dabengwa, will appear in court to face charges of tax evasion on 12 December 2012.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo weeks ago the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate\u2019s Court ruled that criminal summons issued earlier, during a private prosecution initiated by an MTN employee earlier charged with embezzling company funds, were not mandatory orders that required court appearance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe matter has been handed over to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will decide whether to lay criminal charges against MTN. Should he prefer charges, MTN would definitely defend the action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The allegations against MTN are baseless and spurious; and are a desperate attempt by an employee facing four cases of fraud and theft to sully MTN\u2019s reputation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMTN has consistently been rated as the most compliant tax payer in Uganda over the years. We pride ourselves on strong corporate values of ethical behaviour and integrity,\u201d Norman said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related article<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN execs summoned over tax fraud charges\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/26974\/mtn-execs-summoned-over-tax-fraud-charges\/\"><strong>MTN execs summoned over tax fraud charges<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN \u201cpanicking\u201d over US sanctions in Iran: report\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/26219\/mtn-panicking-over-us-sanctions-in-iran-report\/\"><strong>MTN \u201cpanicking\u201d over US sanctions in Iran: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN Group subscribers up to 182.7 million\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/25056\/mtn-group-subscribers-up-to-182-7-million\/\"><strong>MTN Group subscribers up to 182.7 million<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"DA questions MTN bribe accused reinstatement\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/24969\/da-questions-mtn-bribe-accused-reinstatement\/\">DA questions MTN bribe accused reinstatement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Turkcell slams South African justice system\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/19495\/turkcell-slams-south-african-justice-system\/\">Turkcell slams South African justice system<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN moves to have Turkcell claims dismissed\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/16995\/mtn-moves-to-have-turkcell-claims-dismissed\/\"><strong>MTN moves to have Turkcell claims dismissed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"MTN-linked ambassador suspended\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/17649\/mtn-linked-ambassador-suspended\/\">MTN-linked ambassador suspended<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"BusinessTech Article\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/17459\/sa-ambassador-to-be-probed-over-mtn\/\">SA Ambassador to be probed over MTN<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"BusinessTech Article\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/15495\/how-mtn-allegedly-bribed-its-way-into-iran\/\"><strong>How MTN allegedly bribed its way into Iran<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"MTN CEO denies \u201ccover up\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/14852\/mtn-ceo-denies-cover-up\/\">MTN CEO denies \u201ccover up\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Hawks swoop in on MTN\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/14532\/hawks-swoop-in-on-mtn\/\">Hawks swoop in on MTN<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTN Group has denied that its CEO and president, Sifiso Dabengwa, along with other senior managers have been summoned by a Ugandan court to face tax fraud charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,28,2209,3628,1890],"class_list":["post-26991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-mtn-uganda","tag-paul-norman","tag-sifiso-dabengwa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26991"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26994,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26991\/revisions\/26994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}