{"id":99683,"date":"2020-03-06T12:56:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T19:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99683"},"modified":"2020-03-06T12:56:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T19:56:17","slug":"ravages-of-2015-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/06\/ravages-of-2015-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"RAVAGES OF 2015 \u2013 Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

By : A.A.M.NIZXAM – MATARA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The imbecile and ignoramus Sirisena assumed power on January 8th, 2015 like a puppet without even knowing what he is going to do and what he has to do. After five years, since the end of the war, the terrorist realized that their dream of establishing an Eelam can never be realized as long as Mr. Mahinda Rahapaksa remained in power and subsequent to the ignominious 2012 UNP\/Terrorist Singapore meeting the diaspora came forward to pump any amount of funds to launch a regime change similar to Arab Spring which replaced the rulers in Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt ad Libya.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly a grand coalition of the terrorist diaspora, the local white-clothed terrorists, the UNP, the\u00a0 CIA \/M 16 and RAW undertook the task of launching a regime change operation with the blessings of their respective countries and they were joined by NGO vultures as well.\u00a0 A plethora of diaspora funded outfits calling themselves as civil society organizations amounting to around 49 mushroomed overnight and joined the crusader gang who Misguided myopic Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero who stupidly believed that this evil gang is committed to abolishing the Executive Presidential System wholeheartedly supported but regretted his folly several days before his demise.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe immediately after assuming office took the Central Bank under his purview and appointed Arjun Mahendran, a Singapore national, a Sri Lankan born Tamil who had studied initially at Royal College, Colombo as the Governor of Central Bank.\u00a0 This appointment was made even without obtaining consent from the President to appoint this individual, a foreigner, to this the most prestigious post. This was the first incident where Ranil Wickremasinghe boldly displayed that he is the omnipotent personality in the government and Sirisena became just a ceremonial and ignoramus puppet who has to dance to Ranil\u2019s tunes.\u00a0 Also, Ranil Wickremasinghe had a world of his own surrounded by tie-coat clad, English speaking, western servile old Royalists who were aloof to the views and aspirations of the ordinary people of Sri Lanka.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Singaporean appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank by Mr. Wickremasinghe became instrumental in making Sri Lanka\u2019s largest-ever financial scam on 7th February 2015, even two months before establishing the Sirisena\/Ranil government and this scam caused more than US$ 11 million losses to the nation. This grand robbery had taken place through the direct intervention of Arjun Maendran in the sale of Treasury Bonds on behalf of his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius who was the owner of the Perpetual Treasuries Limited.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The treasury bond brigand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the then COPE (Committee investigating malpractices in public Enterprises) Chairman MP DEW Gunasekera, who was also the leader of the Sri Lanka Communist Party was about to present to the Parliament a report highly critical of the bond transaction, Sirisena took a frivolous action to safeguard his patron Ranil and dissolved Parliament nullifying the hard work done by Mr. Gunasekera and called for elections on 17th August 2015.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emboldened\nby the protection provided by Sirisena\/Ranil duo for the 1st<\/sup> Bond\nscam, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahendran\n\/Aloysius couple carried out the second Bond Scam on 29th<\/sup> and 31st<\/sup>\nMarch 2016.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this instance the notorious Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake who earned a reputation as the shark that swallowed the Sathosa establishment assisted Mahendran \/Aloysius duo by instructing the State Banks and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to bid low and thereby making them lose the opportunity to buy the Bonds. Initially, the Central Bank (CBSL) advertised for Rs. 1Biillion worth Bonds to be offered but Mahendran asked the CBSL to accept bids up to Rs. 10 Billion.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Analysts said that the Arjun Mahedran\u2019s decision caused interest rates to increase rapidly, and four months later PTL sold the same bonds to the EPF at a higher price and the <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perpetual Treasuries Limited made over Rs.5 Billion in profits\nover this controversial bond issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Mr.\nD.E.W.Gunasrkera in an interview with Hiru news channel said that Arjun <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahendran in his statement\nto the COPE Committee disclosed that Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe instructed him on\nthe mechanism to be adopted in the Treasury Bond issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the term of office of\nArjun Mahendran ended, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe despite <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahendran\u2019s involvement in Bond Scams nominated him to be appointed for a second term under his guarantee as to the Central Bank Governor but due to certain friction between Sirisena and Ranil at that time, Sirisena refused to accede to this request and appointed Indrajith <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kumaraswamy as the Governor\nof the Central Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arjun Mahendran sensing the\ndangers existing for him fled the country and Ranil <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wickremasinghe, when questioned about his fleeing from the country, said that he had gone only to attend a family wedding in Singapore.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal urged the government to hand over the investigation on Treasury Bonds scams to the CID and conduct an impartial investigation. Cabraal also asked the government to establish several specialized units to look into various aspects of the scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issuing a media statement he said that “From the very beginning, the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration managed to divert the attention and evaded the implementation of the law. This has allowed the real nature of the scam as well as those who are really responsible in it to escape the law.”He has added that the best way to deal with any crime was to conduct a police probe followed by a judicial inquiry. However, the Sirisena\/Ranil government established a number of other committees to look into the matter and this has allowed those without any judicial powers to investigate the incident indefinitely and these \u2018investigations\u2019 were in fact, ploys to allow culprits to remain free and escape from their crime against the State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nReferring\nto the recently released Forensic Audit Report related\nto Bond Scams Mr. Cabral has said that it had been conducted under the\nsupervision of those who were involved in the scams and thus the report was\nbased on false and distorted facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also pertinent to point out here how Bond Ravi (title attributed to him by Sunday Times) got benefited from this Treasury Bonds robbery.\u00a0 A report published in Daily Mirror on 24th<\/sup> July 2017 stated that Aloysius paid Ravi\u2019s penthouse lease rental: The report said that the former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and his family leased out a penthouse at Monarch Residencies in Kollupitiya for the monthly lease rental of Rs.1.45 million being paid by Arjun Aloysius, a key witness revealed at the Presidential Commission of Inqyury (PCoI) proceedings yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testifying at the PCoI, Construction Company Director Anika Wijesuriya said she had owned a Penthouse at Monarch Residencies in Kollupitiya which she wanted to rent-out during December, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early January, 2016, former finance\nminister Ravi Karunanayake and his wife Mela had inquired from the witness’\nbrother about renting the apartment. Later the witness contacted Mrs.\nKarunanayake and carried out initial negotiations about renting the apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Wijesuriya had later asked Mrs.\nKarunanayake to visit the apartment to examine it. It was revealed that during\nthe examination Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. owner Arjun Aloysius had also arrived\nat the apartment and had assured the witness that he would lease out the\napartment.Ms. Wijesuriya said she was aware at the time that Mr. Aloysius would\nbe the lessor while the Karunanayake family would occupy the apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When questioned by the PCoI, the witness\nsaid the apartment was leased at a monthly rental of Rs.1.45 million.Ms.\nWijesuriya said she entered into a lease agreement with the Company called Walt\nand Row Pvt Ltd, to which payment was transferred by the Perpetual Capital\nHoldings Pvt Ltd, to be paid to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witness confirmed that the Karunanayake family occupied the penthouse. This is how the Yahapalana gangsters enjoyed their posh life spending Rs. 1.45 Million per month as rental for their apartments while the ordinary people to whom everything under the sun was promised were struggling unable to feed their children three meals a day.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also reported that MP Ajith\nP.Perera, a member of the footnote gang related to the 2nd<\/sup> COPE\nreport too has received a luxury house from Arjun Aloysius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another of the footnote gang who is\nreported to have twice failed G.C.E. A\/L first time passed only with 3 S passes\nand in the 2nd<\/sup> time with 2 Cpasses and 1 S pass and finally who had\nbought a doctorate from a certificate awarding outfit in the United States,\nspeaking on the Forensic Audit report of the COPE report has acknowledged the\nfailure on the part of Parliament to check corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SLPP said that UNP lawmaker Harsha de\nSilva couldn\u2019t absolve himself of the responsibility for the Treasury Bonds\nscams, perpetrated between Feb 2015 and March 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SLPP flayed the big-mouthed UNPer at the weekly regular briefing at its Nelum Mawatha Office. SLPP Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris and State Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena commented on a range of issues including the forthcoming Geneva sessions, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa\u2019s shameless proposal to cohabit with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa following the parliamentary polls in April 2020. How can it become conducive for this Padman to agree with President GR\u2019s policies which he was severely criticized during the election campaign?\u00a0 They said that President GR has completely discarded Tamil demands which the Padman has pledged to implement with priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to media briefing given by MP de\nSilva at the Opposition Leader\u2019s Office, Kalutara District MP Abeygunawardena\nalleged that the UNPer made a high profile bid to distance himself from\nTreasury bond racketeers, in vain. He said that MP de Silva was now singing a\ndifferent tune and recalled how the Joint Opposition had to plead with TNA\nleader R. Sampanthan to secure sufficient time to speak in parliament regarding\nTreasury bond scams et al. The State Minister urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\nto initiate action to track down as to how Treasury bond thieves spent\nill-gotten money. The MP raised the question whether funds were spent on elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to above, it was reported that Arjun Aloysius had paid millions of rupees to 118 persons, mostly for UNP MPs to protect him against criticisms and the payment included Rs. 30 Million paid to MP Sujeewa Senasinghe to write a book whitewashing allegations against Aloysius.\u00a0 Despite many demands made by the Joint Opposition members to investigate this reported payment and disclose the names of recipients of this money and the amounts each of them has received the government completely hushed up the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us focus attention on relevant extracts from an editorial comment appeared in the Daily Mirror on 27th<\/sup> February 2020 which is given below:\u00a0 The editorial is headlined saying Bond Scam \u2013 Debate over: Now Nab the Culprits\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The editorial states that two important\nevents took place last week, one in Parliament and one within the Halls of\nJustice, which underscored the fact that all are equal before the law. One was\nthe debate on the reports of the forensic audit on the Central Bank bond scams\nwhile the other was the unprecedented court ruling in which Colombo High Court\nJudge Adithya Patabendige sentenced former Homagama district judge Sunil\nAbeysinghe and his personal security officer(PSO), police constable Mahinda\nKithsiri to 16 years rigorous imprisonment.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former judge was found guilty of soliciting and accepting a bribe of Rs.300,000 from a woman in 2013 on the undertaking that he would deliver a verdict in her favour while his PSO was found guilty of aiding and abetting in the act of bribery. They were ordered to pay back the bribe money of Rs.300,000 while each of the convicts was also imposed a fine of Rs.20,000 and two more years in prison in case of non-payment of the fine.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Prior to passing judgment, High\nCourt Judge Patabendige observed that he had considered the damage done to the\njudiciary and hoped the severity of the sentence would act as a deterrent to\nother public servants who might contemplate committing such crimes using\nwhatever means possible to amass filthy lucre by holding to ransom the people\nthey are supposed to serve.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Meanwhile, the two-day debate on the\nforensic audit reports revealed the length and breadth of the Central Bank bond\nscams mainly with the connivance of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd.owned by Arjun\nAloysius during the tenure of Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who was CB governor from\n2006 to 2015 under the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and the scams that took\nplace during the tenure of Arjuna Mahendran, who was CB governor from 2015 to\n2016 under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participants on behalf of\nWickremasinghe government did their best to divert attention from the bond\nscams by insinuating that the two internationally-reputed companies, which\ncarried out the forensic audit, were not above board and furthermore the\nreports had no legal basis and as such there was no purpose in holding a\nparliamentary debate. It appeared to be an attempt to kill the messenger often\nseen in such cases of unscrupulous financial manipulations.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forensic reports taken up for debate\nwere compiled by two leading international audit firms KPMG and BDO and\ncomprised the following:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • The Issuance of Treasury Bonds during the period January 1, 2002 to February 28, 2015 by the Central Bank\u2019s Public Debt Department (PDD).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>
  • Primary and secondary market transactions of the Employees\u2019 Provident Fund (EPF) involving Treasury Bonds issued\/transacted during the period from January 1, 2002 to February 28, 2015\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>
  • EPF transactions from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2017, in listed and unlisted equities\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>
  • Issuance of Treasury Bonds and remittance of funds received to the General Treasury during the period from February 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016, by the PDD.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>
  • The conduct of the supervisory and regulatory role by the Superintendent of Public Debt\/Director, Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions pertaining to selected Primary Dealers from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2017\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The reports revealed that the Government had incurred an estimated loss of some Rs.10.47 billion through direct placements of Treasury Bonds by the Central Bank between January 1, 2015 and February 28, 2015, resulting from 4,504 direct placement transactions which were made by the PDD during this period. Now that the bond scam is over, We hope the government will now not waste any more time in nabbing the culprits involved in this financial crime.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Violations of securities laws are not\nvictim-less crimes. When insider traders gain windfall stock profits because\nthey have bribed someone to leak confidential business secrets, when prices are\nmanipulated and blocks of stocks secretly accumulated, our confidence in the\nunderlying fairness of the market is shattered. We are all victims.\u201d \n(From the prologue of the book titled Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart) \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To be continued\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By : A.A.M.NIZXAM – MATARA The imbecile and ignoramus Sirisena assumed power on January 8th, 2015 like a puppet without even knowing what he is going to do and what he has to do. After five years, since the end of the war, the terrorist realized that their dream of establishing an Eelam can never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aamnizam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99683","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=99683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}