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Lanka seeks WB help to track dirty money stashed in Seychelles
The Government is to seek the assistance of the World Bank in a bid to track down illegal deposits that allegedly had been stashed by members of the former Rajapaksa administration in the Seychelles, Deputy Minister of Policy Development and Economic Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva said yesterday.
He said the main focus at present is the Seychelles following reliable information that members of the former government had made hurried and clandestine monetary transfers of a “gigantic nature” through the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) branch that is situated in the island’s capital, Victoria.
He said investigators will have to engage with the Stolen Assets Recovery (STAR) Program of the World Bank to which the Seychelles is a signatory to it and therefore obliged to cooperate with the investigation.
“The hurried opening of the BOC branch in Victoria mid last year is questionable since there are a tiny number of Sri Lankans living or working in the island nation.
The BOC has branches in India, the UK and in most of West Asian nations where there is a large number of Sri Lankans working or domiciled,” Dr. de Silva added.
He added that he had even raised this issue while serving in the opposition when moves were set to open the BOC branch in the Seychelles.
Meanwhile the Seychelles Foreign Minister Jean Paul Adam, has refuted allegations that his country allowed illegal deposits by members of the Rajapaksa government and has offered his Government’s fullest cooperation towards any probe if there is a formal request from Colombo.
Mr. Adams said any foreign investments in the Seychelles made by Sri Lankans could be verified under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement signed between the two countries, which included a standard Tax Information Exchange Component.
He further said that the Seychelles is a signatory member of a number of international conventions dealing primarily with organised crime, as well as being a member of the Egmont Group, the network of financial intelligence units, while also engaging with the Stolen Assets Recovery (STAR) program of the World Bank in cases of abuse of Seychelles’ financial services sector.
In 2013 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had raised concerns regarding Seychelles’ jurisdiction in terms of tax transparency rules, along with Switzerland and Cyprus.