CORRECTED Repeat: Former Securities Exchange chief Nalaka summoned for questioning by FCID

    Sri Lanka’s elite Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) on Monday summoned former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Nalaka Godahewa for questioning over a number of alleged irregularities, informed sources said. (Corrected to state that the lawyers went to the FCID yesterday, Monday and not today Tuesday) Dr. Godahewa, who has become an active campaigner for the opposition UPFA, was represented at the FCID  office by his lawyers who told investigators that their client would be available for questioning only after the August 17 parliamentary election. The FCID is probing many issues relating to Dr. Godahewa’s past positions at Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI) and SEC, and stock market transactions pertaining to Lanka Hospitals. He was a former Managing Director of SLI and later its’ Competent Authority, chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism and a director at Lanka Hospitals. The FCID is investigating into a number of transactions at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) during the recent past, including insider trading and market manipulation. These irregularities are alleged to have taken place between 2009 and 2014 at Lanka Hospitals under the chairmanship of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. A large-scale financial irregularity is said to have to have taken place during a share transaction involving an Indian based company and Lanka Hospitals, the sources said. The inquiry during his tenure at SEC pertains to a’ donation’ the stock market regulator gave to a youth organization run by Namal Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The SLI issues relate to a Supreme Court order to pay back the Rs. 6 billion to business tycoon Harry Jayawardena in 2009. The UPFA-controlled Organization of Voice of intellectuals and Professionals has written to the Elections Commissioner saying that persons who are involved in election campaign cannot be summoned by the FCID as a matter of understanding between the Election Secretariat and law enforcement authorities. The organisation claimed that the summoning of Mr. Godahewa was a politically motivated action taken by the FCID.