Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1345126
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 FEBRUARY 2021 NEWS save more. generate. store. use. New energy schemes tailor-made for your needs. Visit rews.org.mt Freephone 8000 2400 CONTINUED PAGE 1 Two months into his tenure, Lourenço kicked off an anti-cor- ruption drive that spread to Dos Santos's holdings in Europe, chiefly Portugal. Among her holdings, Dos Santos held some 14 compa- nies in Malta alone, designed to minimise her tax exposure from profits remitted to the is- land. MaltaToday had revealed the extent of her Malta busi- ness network in 2015. Now one of her consultan- cy firms – Kento Holding – is fighting a tax bill in Malta after having first attempted to claim a €99,000 VAT refund. The Malta investigation by the Commissioner for Revenue (CFR) found that the company Kento Holding did not carry out any economic activity in Malta, and was not entitled in claiming a €99,000 VAT re- fund. Kento Holding is a Maltese entity used to receive consul- tancy fees for services on acqui- sition and redistribution agree- ments for television channels. The company has a 70% stake in two significant subsidiaries, Upstar Comunicacoes of Por- tugla, and Mstar of Mozam- bique. The company is also a shareholder in ZOPT in Por- tugal, the main shareholding of NOS, Portugal's $1.82 billion leader in the so-called 'quad play' market of internet, TV, fixed and mobile telephony. Instead, the tax investigation revealed that the company owed the Exchequer a total of €191,176 in taxes. The Compliance & Investi- gations Directorate's investi- gation revealed that there was "no intention of carrying out any economic activity" in the country that would merit a VAT refund. It said that "it is highly unlikely that the compa- ny has real intentions of con- ducting an economic activity despite being registered since 1 September 2018, as no turn- over was reported." The CFR also said the compa- ny had to pay over €38,000 in penalties apart from the tax it owed. At the time of Kento's activi- ties, the Dos Santos holdings in Malta were managed by former Nationalist MP Noel Buttigieg Scicluna. He resigned his du- ties in January 2020. In August 2020, Dos Santos lost joint control of NOS after her business partner, Sonae- com, announced an agreement to dissolve ZOPT, their 50-50 joint venture, which owned 52% of NOS shares. Dos San- tos held her stake indirectly through Kento in Malta, and Dutch shell company Unitel International Holdings BV. The dissolution came on the back of a Lisbon court order to freeze Dos Santos's control, prompted by Angola's attempts to recover an estimated $1 bil- lion in public money it alleges dos Santos and her associates siphoned from the country during her father's 38-year rule. Taxman wants billionaire to pay her dues Isabel dos Santos always claimed she was a self- made billionaire, but her riches were built on the back of controlled Angolan state enterprises. Her late husband Sindika Dokolo, is the other shareholder in Kento Holding