On June 22, at the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, I had the opportunity to meet Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla through the introduction of Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez.
The ambassador introduced me as a tax advocate who has spent much of his career promoting tax policy reforms, fighting corruption through stronger tax administration, and helping attract foreign direct investments to the Philippines.
During our brief conversation, I shared with Ombudsman Remulla a lesson from one of the most famous criminal cases in history: the case of American mob gangster Al Capone.
Al Capone was widely believed to be involved in organized crime, bootlegging, bribery, and violence during the Prohibition era in the United States. Yet despite years of investigations, authorities struggled to secure convictions for many of those offenses. Ultimately, Capone was convicted not for being a gangster, but for tax evasion.
The lesson remains relevant nearly a century later.
