Saga of the depositors of failed companies
Saga of the depositors of failed companies The Finance and Guarantee (Property Developers) and (Real Estate) companies have been two subsidiary companies of the Ceylinco Group under the chairmanship of Lalith Kotelawala.
We, the depositors of these two companies have invested our hard-earned monies in these two companies in the hope of getting a return to have a decent life without being a burden on our children or any others.
During the tenure of the previous governments, these two companies were malfunctioning and the depositors were not given the interest on their investments for the last 10 years or so. A Trust was formed headed by . C.
Mayadunne, a retired Auditor General and included a retired Chief Valuer, retired banker and a chartered accountant.
They were receiving Rs. 25,000 per sitting having had four sittings for a month for more than three years in addition to other perks. They have prepared the assets registers valuing the properties at more than Rs. 6 billion.
Thereafter for the second time some depositors got together and formed an association and through a Supreme Court order took over the management of the two companies and sadly misused the monies of the depositors without any transparency in their activities. For years depositors didn’t receive a single cent.
After a few years, for the third time another set of depositors formed into another association and took over the management headed by retired Brigadier Ranjan Silva through a Supreme Court order. He brought some alternative suggestions with a link with the Union Bank and he too was trying to hoodwink the depositors without giving the actual plan of repayment.
As he was not showing any genuine transparent plan, he was chased out from the president’s position of this association at a meeting held at the Public Library and one Mr. Tissera appointed as the president as the fourth group.
He was managing for few years with some others of his choice without informing the depositors what they were doing. None of the depositors other than those close to them knew what was happening. There was no transparency whatsoever of their activities for few years.
The fifth group of so-called depositors headed by one Upali Rajapaksha, Caldera, Wijesuriya, Ashley Wilathgamuwa and some others got together and took over the management of the two companies through a Supreme Court order and paid off 10 per cent of those depositors of Rs.250,000 and less. Here too there was no transparency in their activities with the depositors as to the rest of the plans of paying off the depositors’ monies. It is now learnt that they too have been removed and another group (the sixth association) with Brigadier Silva (who was removed earlier), a retired judge, Mr.
Katuwawala (a former trustee) and some others have taken over the management of the two companies.
Thus those who toiled hard with their sweat and saved money to lead a decent life without being a burden on others during the last days of their lives are being plundered by fellow depositors. Where is the fairness in the law in our country?
There were other finance companies which were defunct and have been granted financial assistance from the Central Bank by the Finance Minister and paid off the depositors such as Golden Key, etc. Why can’t the Government extend the same opportunity to the F&G depositors and redress them at least those who are at their last days in their lives, say above 70 years of age.
We trust President Maithripala Sirisena will at least look into our fate at this last stage and grant redress utilising our own assets from those unscrupulous elements.
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W.K. RuberuÂ
Disgusted and frustrated depositor Â