Chairman of the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) Janaka Ratnayake has denied some sections of the The Sunday Times FT report last week underlined ‘MBSL Chairman to appear in computer fraud case’.
Mr Ratnayake says this is not a case of criminal breach of trust but alleged default. It pertains to a payment of around Rs.3.3 million to Sterling Merchant Investments Ltd, formerly Pramuka Merchant Corporation Ltd by Computer Island Private Ltd, and alleged mishandling of 39 computers.
Mr. Ratnayake says he relinquished duties as the Chairman of this company two years ago. The civil case to recover the money was filed at the Commercial high Court by the former Pramuka Merchant Corporation Ltd company and not the CID, as erroneously reported.
Computer Island Pvt Ltd had been given a loan facility of Rs. 8.5 million by the former Pramuka firm to import 100 computers from IBM Singapore Pvt Ltd. The defendant company settled some bills amounting to Rs. 2.4 million on 05 -06-2002. Then, Mr. Ratnayake on behalf of the company, says he issued a cheque for Rs. 3 million, as a surety bond without dating it and alleged that the plaintiff company had inserted the date 11-03-2003 and submitted to the bank to encash it. Mr Ratnayake says he instructed the bank to stop payment but it was not returned to the drawer due to lack of funds. The case was taken up last Monday by the Colombo High Court Judge Ms. Rohini Welgama and put off for trial to July 31. |
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