SEC requests info on suspect stock transactions
View(s):The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has request the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) to provide information on suspicious transactions during 2011-2013, sources close to CSE said.
“There were certain transactions that were allegedly fraudulent and those which were ‘literally swept under the carpet,” a source told the Business Times. According to him most probes were shut in the past owing to ‘insufficient’ information which was a popular ‘excuse’ when certain probes didn’t see the light of day.
“There are a number of allegations of violations of the Colombo Stock Exchange market rules and SEC regulations. The minor ones were compounded. Thirteen large cases were abandoned purportedly on a lack of evidence,” he told parliament, adding that they were not probed or were settled when it should have been probed further.
The source added that Environmental Resources and Investments (ERI), Colombo Land and Reefcomber were specifically mentioned by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament recently and that they are cottoning onto those probes. “The ERI has been fined (in the past), but we are trying to see whether ‘all’ information was considered when they were penalised. Also we are probing into the other two cases,” he said. The fact that the SEC has reopened probes into these three companies was also confirmed by SEC Chairman Thilak Karunaratne in recent media reports.