Foreign news websites fall for false Jeane selfie
FOREIGN news websites joining outraged Filipinos in condemning the disgusting lifestyle of Jeane Napoles have themselves been deceived.
Huffington Post, news.com.au and daily mail.co.uk recently ran stories disapproving of the self-indulgent and high-flying daughter
of alleged pork scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles for “taking a selfie while bathing in cash.”
The articles on the younger Napoles, who was charged with tax evasion on Thursday, were accompanied by a photo of a woman inside a bathtub covered in cash.
“Posting a picture of yourself covered in money while your mom awaits trial on embezzlement charges probably isn’t the best idea. Apparently no one told that to Jeane Napoles,” Catherine Taibi wrote in an article titled “Jeane Napoles Charged With Tax Evasion After Taking Selfie Bathing In Cash,” which was posted on the Huffington Post website on Friday.
However, the photo referred to in the Huffington Post article was actually one that was posted in August on a parody Facebook account named “Jeane Lim-Napoles.”
“Time to take a bath. I changed the currency because people might react if I used peso bills,” the caption of the Facebook photo said.
The same photo appeared on news.com.au, an online news site in Australia, and dailymail.co.uk, a London-based news website.
But no matter, the foreign news websites were on a roll.
Huffington Post noted that the younger Napoles “has a long history of sharing photos of her decadent lifestyle,” adding that she was trying to sell her RitzCarlton condominium in Los Angeles for $1.475 million.
An article posted on news.com.au, “Philippines woman Jeane Napoles’s ‘Money bath’ pic catches tax man’s eye amid corruption scandal,” said Jeane Napoles had taken to social media sites like Tumblr and Instagram to “document her high-flying lifestyle” before the scandal broke in July.
“But after Filipino newspapers ... broke the news about her mother’s alleged links to corruption, her posts drew anger in the impoverished country where many believe a few families are enriching themselves unfairly,” said the news.com.au article, posted on Thursday.
“Featuring designer dresses, jewel-encrusted shoes and fast cars, [Napoles’ social media posts] drew condemnation from those in her home country where an estimated 28 percent of people live in poverty,” said an article written by Chris Pleasance and posted on the dailymail.co.uk website on Friday.
The tax evasion charges against Jeane Napoles came weeks after her mother and father were charged with the same offense by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The BIR said the younger Napoles was being charged for P32.06 million in tax liabilities, inclusive of interest and surcharges, because she did not declare an income when she was able to acquire and register in her name real estate properties during the taxable years 2011 and 2012. Among the properties was the Ritz-Carlton unit in the US, which was acquired in 2011.
According to the BIR, it used the expenditure method in determining Napoles’ unpaid tax liabilities. Under this method, any expenditure that is in excess of reported income and unexplained wealth is considered to be the amount of unreported income. The amount of unreported income and the value of the assets are used as basis for determining unpaid tax liabilities.
The BIR said the tax liability estimate was a “conservative” one, as it did not consider the younger Napoles’ living expenditures or even the cost of her partying. It was apparently referring to social media reports of Jeane Napoles’ partying in a Hollywood club to celebrate her 21st birthday, which enraged netizens amid reports about the pork barrel scam allegedly perpetrated by her mother. Inquirer Research
Sources: Inquirer Archives, Huffington Post, news.com.au, dailymail.co.uk