The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday directed the Attorney General (AG) - through the Monetary Board of the Central Bank - to obtain a comprehensive list of assets of Golden Key (GK) Credit Card Company Ltd and its subsidiaries as well as the assets of Ceylinco Chief Lalith Kotelawala to be sold to refund the money of depositors.
The Monetary Board has been directed to obtain details of assets from directors and shareholders of the GK by way of affidavits, a declaration of their assets and liabilities and if a full disclosure was not made, under the purview of the Monetary Board, such act would be treated as contempt of Court and would be dealt with accordingly.
The court rejected the list of assets submitted by the company earlier to the AG saying that it is unacceptable because the value mentioned in some of these assets were unrealistic and over valued. That list prepared by a proposed Trust was published in The Sunday Times FT last week. Deputy Solicitor General Sarath Jayamanne told The Sunday Times FT that GK directors should divulge their assets as well as company assets to the Central Bank to help compile a comprehensive list to be produced before the court. The Central Bank has already commenced their investigations into this matter following the SC ruling, he said.
The Monetary Board should prepare the full list of assets and its actual value obtaining information from directors of the company, the court ruled in the fundamental rights’ petitions filed by 23 GK depositors. The court earliar issued an interim order preventing directors of GK from selling or transferring its properties and preventing the company hierarchy from operating or closing any foreign bank accounts maintained by them and from transferring or depositing funds in such bank accounts.
Court asked the Monetary Board to submit a report as to what steps have been taken with regard to the investigation conducted by the CB’s Special Investigation Unit on GK in 2006. Attorney General Mohan Peiris gave an assurance that the report will be submitted on the next hearing day in the case on April 27. Meanwhile in another development the Colombo Commercial High Court issued a restraining order on Wednesday preventing the GK, its Chairman Kotelawala and the other respondents from directly or indirectly making any payments to selected depositors without the permission of the Court. They were also restrained from leaving Sri Lanka without permission from Court while the company was restrained from operating its bank accounts.
In the meantime, the Interpol division of Singapore has sent an acknowledgement letter to the CID stating that they will take prompt action to adhere to the open warrant issued by the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate to arrest GK Director Sicille P. C. Kotelawala, a senior CID official told The Sunday Times FT . The CID informed Mt. Lavinia Magistrate that action would be taken to arrest Ms. Kotelawala through Interpol. However, when the case was taken up last Thursday, the court made order to produce a proper medical report detailing her exact illness that prevents her from returning to the country.
Denying the allegations of employees on missing files of GK, the CID officer said that all the information and data required for the investigations had been taken over by the CID from the computer network of the company and there was no need for them to go through the files including documents, vouchers, credit card and account statements of customers and company’s establishment documents. He said that everything was in the computer and the CID took it over at the inception of their investigations. Referring to a pirith chanting ceremony conducted at the GK head office at Bambabalapitiya last week that drew some attention, he noted that it was organized by financial controller Shantha Ranathunga without getting permission from the CID. He added that some priests of Mettharama temple Bambalapitiya had conducted the pirith chanting before the arrival of CID officers.
On Thursday, at least 250 depositors of Golden Key staged another protest demonstration opposite the Ceylinco Consolidated company office at Bambalapitiya demanding that the management should hear their plight as most of them are suffering without money even to celebrate the New Year.
They chanted slogans during the 3-hour protest saying Ceylinco directors were enjoying life from their money and the financiers (depositors) were virtually thrown to streets like beggars. President of the Golden Key Depositors Association Anusha Emmert told The Sunday Times FT that they are willing to negotiate with Ceylinco Chief Kotelawala and his management team to work out a compromise formula to settle the grievances of needy depositors numbering around 1,200 who have deposited a sum of around Rs 2 billion.
These people are not rich and they had deposited their hard earned money and some of them had sold their property to get an interest monthly for their day to day living, she said. |
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