{"id":86583,"date":"2019-03-20T15:21:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T22:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86583"},"modified":"2019-03-20T15:21:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T22:21:27","slug":"singapore-rejects-sri-lankan-leaders-allegation-on-trading-scam-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/03\/20\/singapore-rejects-sri-lankan-leaders-allegation-on-trading-scam-suspect\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore rejects Sri Lankan leader’s allegation on trading scam suspect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Mailonline<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"Former<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Former Sri Lanka central bank governor Arjuna Mahendran is wanted by Colombo to face charges related to a $74 million insider trading scandal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore rejected Wednesday Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s allegation it was sheltering a former central bank chief wanted for fraud, saying Colombo failed to provide documents to support its extradition request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirisena on Monday accused Singapore of sheltering Arjuna Mahendran, one of his country’s former central bank chiefs wanted in connection with a high-profile $74 million insider trading scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirisena said he appealed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in January to return Mahendran, who is believed to be in Singapore, but claimed nothing had been done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahendran, a Singapore national of Sri Lankan origin, was accused in 2015 of passing sensitive information to his bond-dealer son-in-law to make millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair are accused of manipulating bond auctions in 2015 and 2016, causing losses of over $11 million to the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said authorities in the city-state have been cooperating with their Sri Lankan counterparts on the case since January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Sri Lanka’s request to return Mahendran “lacked certain information required under Singapore\u00b4s extradition laws” and the city-state has requested Colombo to provide them, the spokesperson told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To date, Singapore has not yet received the requested supporting information and documents,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We look forward to receiving the requested information from Sri Lanka, so that we can consider the request further in accordance with our laws.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore can extradite fugitives to declared Commonwealth countries, which include Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February last year, Mahendran was named a key suspect in the multi-million dollar bond scam in Sri Lanka. He fled abroad, failing to appear in court to respond to charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A damning presidential report into the scandal accused Mahendran of insider trading and recommended the state recover its losses from Mahendran and his son-in-law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka’s central bank also launched a forensic audit to ascertain the extent of insider trading during Mahendran’s tenure at the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fallout deepened acrimony between Sirisena and his coalition partner Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who handpicked Mahendran to head the central bank in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair’s strained relationship collapsed entirely in late 2018, when Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe, plunging the country into political chaos as both men competed for power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wickremesinghe was reappointed after months of limbo when the Supreme Court intervened and ruled that Sirisena had acted outside the constitution by dismissing the prime minister and parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Mailonline Former Sri Lanka central bank governor Arjuna Mahendran is wanted by Colombo to face charges related to a $74 million insider trading scandal Singapore rejected Wednesday Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s allegation it was sheltering a former central bank chief wanted for fraud, saying Colombo failed to provide documents to support its extradition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-86583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-trading-scam-suspect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}