Touchwood liquidator reveals attempts to dupe creditors again
A former top Touchwood Investments official was recently found to have established a new company and carrying out maintenance of the liquidated company’s properties and charging fees from its creditors to the dismay of liquidator Sudath Kumar. Touchwood Investments Liquidator Kumar said in an interview with the Business Times on Thursday that a new company titled Sintec Plantation Management of which former Touchwood Investments CEO Channa Abeygunawardena is currently a Director has been carrying out maintenance work on the Touchwood properties and illegally obtaining fees in this regard from creditors.
These latest developments came into light in October and it was noted that Mr. Kumar would be filing a court case in this regard against Mr. Gunawardena and the said company. Mr. Kumar further stated that on the other hand, JAT Holdings which was previously contracted by Touchwood Investments to carry out maintenance work of the company’s properties had since a year back been collecting fees from the creditors in this regard. The liquidator pointed out that creditors need to be aware that any maintenance work could only be carried out with the permission of the liquidator who was currently in charge of the company.
Further, JAT Holdings had stated that they were owners of certain properties of Touchwood Investments where it was found that they had entered into transactions with smaller investors owning from about five to 40 perches of land for which they laid claim However, once the court case was going on they proposed to purchase the properties as advertised by the liquidator for the maintenance of the lands to pay off the investors. As a result the case was put off till February 24 and prior to which the company is expected to submit their proposal to Liquidator Kumar on how they were proposing to pay for the rights to the company lands that would make them owners of the properties of Touchwood Investments.