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Arjun Aloysius privy to price sensitive inside information: PTL Chief Dealer
The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) probing the issue of Treasury Bonds (TB) is set to summon Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) owner Arjun Aloysius this week, to question him over explosive revelations regarding him, made before the CoI last week.
Arjun Aloysius arriving for Friday's hearings. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Mr Aloysius was questioned at length by detectives of the Criminal Investigation Dept (CID), assisting the CoI, for three days this week, over revelations by the Attorney General’s (AG) Dept, that he had obtained price sensitive inside information ahead of the Central Bank’s (CB) TB auctions, during the period his father-in-law Arjuna Mahendran was its Governor.
Mr Aloysius was issued summons to appear before the CID on Wednesday (6), but Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Yasantha Kodagoda, appearing for the AG’s Dept, informed the CoI they had been unable to serve him the summons, as he could not be found. Mr Aloysius later presented himself to the CID on Thursday (7).
The CoI, comprising Supreme Court Justices K.T. Chitrasiri and Prasanna Jayawardena, and retired Deputy Auditor General V. Kandasamy, is looking into the sale of TBs from February 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016.
Giving evidence before the CoI on Wednesday, PTL’s Chief Dealer Nuwan Salgado disclosed that Mr Aloysius had obtained price sensitive inside information regarding TB auctions from within the CB. This had enabled PTL to make profits amounting to a staggering Rs 11 billion during the 2015-2016 period.
According to Mr Salgado, Mr Aloysius had received inside information not just from officers within the CB’s Public Debt Dept, but also from officers within the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the National Savings Bank (NSB).
In evidence led by ASG Yasantha Kodagoda, Mr Salgado played four compact discs containing “deleted” unedited phone recordings of PTL, before the CoI., during the period the controversial TB auctions took place. The recordings were of phone calls between Arjun Aloysius, PTL CEO Kasun Palisena and Chief Dealer Nuwan Salgado
One of the calls had been made at 9.30 am local time on May 29, 2016; the day of a CB TB auction. Mr Aloysius, who was in Singapore at the time, was heard in the recordings speaking to CEO Palisena. In the phone conversation, Mr Aloysius and Mr Palisena are speaking about bids in the EPF and NSB.
The ASG questioned Mr Salgado as to who the CB official was, who took the final decision on the TB auction of May 29, 2016. Mr Salgado replied it was then CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran and that, he was Mr Aloysius’s father-in-law.
He further said Mr Aloysius would habitually call Mr Palisena and give instructions on how to present bids in TB auctions during this period.
Mr Salgado, meanwhile, made another revelation that Mr Palisena called him from the UK and instructed him to obtain a copy of the statement he gave to the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) chaired by DEW Gunasekara, through the son of then MP Rosy Senanayake, who was a member of COPE at the time. This recording too was played before the CoI.
The CoI later ordered police to provide special police protection to Mr Salgado, based on a request made by the AG’s Dept that he was a key witness in the CoI’s proceedings, and feared for his life.
Meanwhile, Nihal Fernando P.C., who appeared for PTL, made a special statement before the CoI on Thursday, stating he would withdraw from representing the Company at the conclusion of evidence given by PTL CEO Kasun Palisena.
Mr Fernando said the reason for his decision was that PTL had failed to disclose to him all data regarding its transactions, as evidenced by the handing over of several discs containing some 100 unedited phone recordings. As such, Mr Fernando said his professional ethics did not permit him to represent such a client, but would stay on till CEO Palisena had concluded his evidence as PTL’s Legal Advisor informed him it was difficult to immediately engage the services of another Attorney.