Offenders siphoning out ‘ill-gotten’ wealth to be brought to justice
Stock market offenders better watch out! Sri Lanka’s new regime is hunting crony cash siphoned out through the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and will go to any length to bring the stock market mafia to book, officials said.
Minister of Power and Energy Champika Ranawaka, a founding member of an Anti-Corruption Front, told the Business Times that they have got ‘many’ complaints against malpractices in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and these would be investigated.
The JHU heavyweight added that crony cash has been wired out of the country through the CSE and that the anti-corruption unit is on their trail. “We will give special attention to the CSE,” he added. He reiterated that investigations won’t be dropped under any circumstances. Recalling the change of government way back in August 1994, MP Ranawaka pointed out that those who had been accountable for massive waste, corruption and wrongdoing survived by merely swapping their allegiance to the new regime. “We’ll not let cases be concealed by allowing powerful persons to pay colossal bribes.”
Meanwhile stock market sources said panic selling in the stock market during the past few days may been due to ‘some’ shady traders trying to cash in on their ‘ill-gotten’ wealth with the change in government.
“Now that tables have turned ‘they’ are trying to take the money out,” a source told the Business Times.
The sources say this drive into ‘catching the culprits’ has panicked the stock market mafia.
Most of the shares that came under pressure were the big caps where the foreign investors are the bulk of the names, according to some analysts, who say this selling may not reflect crony cash being siphoned out as its foreigners that are cashing in.
Some say that not all foreigners are genuine. “There are nationals operating off shore accounts who play the CSE in the guise of foreign traders,” another analyst pointed out.
| SEC chief Godahewa finally quits Nalaka Godahewa, the controversial chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), finally stepped down on Friday, after defiantly staying on after the Presidential elections. In an email to staff at midday on Friday, he said he was resigning. The SEC chief had refused to step down saying he came under the Ministry of Economic Development, which is now defunct, and not the Ministry of Finance. This came after Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said the SEC chairman has been asked to resign. The SEC now comes under the Prime Minister’s Office. Former SEC chairperson Thilak Karunaratne is expected to return to his former post which he quit under pressure from powerful traders. |