Janz blames employees in Customs fraud case

The Customs Department’s trail on Periceyl Ltd, a subsidiary of Distilleries Corporation of Sri Lanka (DCSL) controlled by business tycoon Harry Jayawardena for alleged fraudulent documents is hotting up amidst plans to contact the French Customs in connection with the investigations.

A senior Customs official told The Sunday Times FT that it was also discovered that Periceyl General Manager, Senaka Amarathunga and Wimal Karunaratne, Manager DCSL, Seeduwa were appointed as directors of Periceyl this July, in place of Eric Jeffray and Aziz Jetha. “They (the last two names) were directors appointed by Pernod Ricard, a French company having 50 percent of Periceyl till recently when DCSL acquired their stake in July,” he said. He also said that Pernod Ricard knew that trouble was brewing at Periceyl with the Customs which was when they had decided to leave.

“We will contact the French firm and question both Jeffray and Jetha. We will also request assistance from the French Customs as well,” he added.

Meanwhile, when Royle Janz, a director at Periceyl was questioned by the Customs Department in conjunction with the Customs fraud case on Tuesday, he put the blame on two employees saying that they have dealt with the import documentation that the Customs found fault with.

“He said that he is only an ‘appointed director’ and is not aware of how the documents were processed,” Customs sources said. Customs officials, nearly one year ago came across documents which showed DCSL was swindling the state for the last 10 years for over Rs.1500 million with under invoicing.