Shangri-la land deal jigsaw puzzle becomes mind- boggling
A jigsaw puzzle in the Shangri-la Galle face land deal has been unveiled following the emergence of details of missing money after almost seven years of a brainteaser to government authorities.
The Treasury has now been able to unravel this mystery payment made more than two years ago.
In August 2016, a sum of Rs. 157 million was transferred to the Central Bank following an order issued by the Kaduwela Magistrate hearing the money laundering case involving the Carlton Sports Network (CSN) as the FCID couldn’t detect the money owner.
At the Court proceedings it was revealed this money had been deposited in two fixed deposits under the account of Amtrad, a private company.
However when Amtrad Holdings Ltd informed the Court that the money didn’t belong to them, the FCID which detected this money during the CSN case investigations, sought approval from the Kaduwela Magistrate Dhammika Hemapala to transfer the money from the fixed deposits to the Central Bank two years ago in 2016.
It has been revealed that Amtrad Company received this money as a loan from Pan Asia bank via a leading leasing company.
A company called TPL Inter had deposited this money with this leasing company in Colombo. TPL Inter and Helliard companies were set up and registered in British Virgin Islands to provide consultancy services to Shangri-La Hotels Colombo project, Court records revealed.
Shangri-La Hotels has paid US$5 million (Rs.900 million) as consultancy fees to these two companies in 2011. A sum of $2.5 million had been brought to Sri Lanka to Amtrad via the local leasing company.
A directive has been issued to transfer a sum of Rs.157 million to the account of Nimal Perera (former Pan Asia Bank Chairman) to purchase Tangalle Bay Hotel.
When FCID commenced investigations into this matter, Mr. Perera has transferred this money to the Amtrad account through the leasing company.
Trying to solve this Shangri –la deal jigsaw puzzle became more mind boggling as discrepancy in facts and figures publicly announced by the government in the Colombo land deal involving Hong Kong based Shangri-La hotels and state-run China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC) from time to time created confusion as the total sales proceeds cannot be traced in Treasury’s general account number 6000, an official source told the Business Times, almost seven years ago.
The Business Times reported this issue in an article under the heading ‘Jigsaw puzzle in Shangri-La and CATIC land deals’ in July 3, 2011 stating that “Although a deputy minister has announced that a sum of US$ 261.5 million had been received from the two deals, there was no record to prove it in Treasury accounts”.
At a press conference, Deputy Economic Development Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane said a sum of $261.5 million received by the sale of the 20 acre land to the Shangri-La and CATIC companies had been deposited in the Treasury’s general account number 6000 in a transparent manner. Cabinet approval had been received for this project and the gazette notification was also issued, he said.
But the Treasury account had only $76 million at that time and, this matter is still haunting the portals of the Treasury.