From: Leo Odera Omolo
CITY tycoon Michael Ezra Mulyowa has denied being on the run over debts, displaying wads of dollars ($3m) to prove his point.
Michael Ezra displays stacks of dollars to journalists to prove that he is not bankrupt.
Addressing a press conference at classy Emin Pasha Hotel in Nakasero yesterday, Ezra, 37, said he owes the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) about sh1b in unpaid taxes and the National Bank of Commerce sh400m.
He added that he and his partners were in the process of paying up “at a convenient time”.
He declined to name his partners or how the amounts accumulated, but added that the issue had been around since November 2008.
“The commissioner general of URA is not wrong to say I owe them money because promises to pay have not been fulfilled. As negotiations continue, I have engaged several lawyers and auditors,” he said.
Ezra, who had been said to be on the run, also said he needed to consult whether he would pay the taxes as an individual or share them with other concerned parties.
“I am trying to be as evasive as possible, but what came out (in the media) was at the wrong time,” he said.
Ezra, who said he is unique and that some people were planting negative stories about him in order to “demystify” him, said a feeling was being created that he was getting “finished”.
“I don’t think I am the only one who owes URA. Bill Gates has debts too. What is the hullabaloo about? I don’t know of any international dealer who doesn’t owe money,” he said.
In a letter of August 23, URA boss Allen Kagina asked the internal affairs ministry to bar Michael Ezra from travelling abroad before he paid up the taxes.
Ezra said he read about the travel ban in the media. He said the problem was not Kagina’s communication, but the timing and leakage to the media.
He said he was prompted to come out over the matter because of the tax element and other debts that made it appear he was “going down”.
“Maybe I am already down. Some people are not comfortable as long as I am around. I have been living a quiet life deliberately,” he said.
On Thursday, the Commercial Court also ordered Ezra to pay over sh400m he borrowed from the National Bank of Commerce. The money carries an interest of 31% per annum.
The bank said in 2009, Ezra borrowed sh400m that carried a 25% interest. The money was supposed to be paid back in two installments within four months.
In September last year, the Kenyan police questioned Ezra in Nairobi over allegedly issuing a cheque that was dishonoured. The cheque was to pay for medical equipment worth $20,400 from a doctor in Kenya. Yesterday, he showed transfer forms that showed he had paid for the equipment.
Asked what he does for a living, Ezra said: “I am a private citizen who does private business. When I become a public citizen, that’s when I will be obliged to declare. There are people who know what I do and where, but it’s purely my business.”
He warned that “the end of this will be powerful”, citing many attempts on his life because “people fear what they don’t know or understand about him”.
Ends