Philippines' 'Karen Carpenter' Claire Dela Fuente gets 7 years in prison for tax evasion

MANILA, Philippines — Veteran singer Claire Dela Fuente was sentenced to seven years in prison for tax evasion. 

According to separate reports by Pilipino Star Ngayon and Manila Bulletin yesterday, the Court of Tax Appeal ruled that Claire failed fo file the income tax returns of her bus firm Philippine Corinthian Liner Corporation (PCLC) from 1998 to 2004. 

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed seven counts of tax evasion against Dela Fuente's bus company 10 years ago, and the Court of Tax Appeal said that “for each of the consolidated criminal cases, she is hereby sentenced to suffer the straight penalty of imprisonment of one year.” 

The court also ordered Claire to pay a fine of P150,000, with subsidiary imprisonment and an additional P50,000 fine in case she would not pay the original fine.

Dela Fuente pleaded not guilty of the charges, saying that her company only started operating in 2005. But PCLC’s records with the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board, Securities and Exchange Commission and Land Transportation Office showed that the company began operating even before 2005.

The court also dismissed PCLC’s 2005 BIR registration as "spurious" or fake.

Claire was known as one of the "Jukebox Queens" of the 1970s together with Imelda Papin, Didith Reyes and Eva Eugenio. She was dubbed as the "Karen Carpenter of the Philippines" due to her Carpenter-like "sweet" voice as can be heard from her hit song "Sayang."