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Joseph Calata, founder of Kroptoken and Calcoin, has been slapped with tax evasion charges in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
The charges were brought<\/a> under the Philippines Run After Tax Evader (RATE) program, a scheme designed to crack down on the rising incidents of tax fraud in the country. According to the court filings, Calata and his business entities have accumulated a total aggregate liability of over PHP398.13 million (US$6.8 million) with the matter instituted in Caloocan City.<\/p>\n \u201cThe respondent\u2019s failure and continued refusal to file or pay their long overdue deficiency taxes, despite repeated demands, constitute a willful failure to file or pay taxes due to the government,\u201d the Philippines\u2019 Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said.<\/p>\n This is not Calata\u2019s first run-in with Filipino law enforcement agencies. In 2017, Calata Corp. was delisted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) after it failed to make relevant disclosures to the public and for insider trading. As a result, Calata was banned by the country\u2019s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from holding any executive position in any public company in the country.<\/p>\n To circumvent the punishment of the PSE, Calata turned his sights to digital assets, converting all outstanding 570 million shares of Calata Corp into\u00a0virtual currency<\/a>\u00a0known as\u00a0Calcoins\u00a0in 2018. However, the venture was short-lived following impediments from regulators back in Hong Kong over irregularities with the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and the issuing entities.<\/p>\n Other offenders in BIR\u2019s delinquent taxpayers\u2019 list include Agri Phil Corporation, KG Design & Packaging Group Corp, L.A.H. Construction Corporation, Marick Rickmark Corporation, and Mijac Construction, Inc. Principal members of the defaulting companies were also listed as defendants in the matter and were charged under sections 253 (d) and 256 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.<\/p>\n Expect a wave of digital asset tax-related cases<\/strong><\/p>\n