CID questions SEC officials on Rs. 5 mln Tharunyata Hetak grant
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recently summoned several officials attached to the Securities and Exchange (SEC) to record statements on the Rs. 5 million ‘grant’ by the regulator for a youth movement headed by former President’s son and politician, Namal Rajapaksa’s Tharunyata Hetak Fund some two years ago.
Senior CID sources told the Business Times one official was questioned for five and a half hours on this last week. At the time it was said that these funds were disbursed by the SEC for ‘awareness creation regarding capital markets’. SEC Deputy Director General Dhammika Perera was quoted as telling media in October 2013 that the funds were provided to Tharunyata Hetak due to the ‘penetration this movement has in the country’, the funds were provided to cover the costs for the organisation and for it to conduct awareness programmes on capital markets,” he has said. He has also said that a proposal in this regard was submitted by Tharunyata Hetak, to the SEC and that “after careful consideration of the proposal we decided to release the funds”.
“Former SEC Chairman Nalaka Godahewa and the former Commission members are also to be summoned before the CID to record statements,” a senior CID source said. Meanwhile, in a latest turn of events, one time powerful stock market investor Dilith Jayaweera was questioned by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) over alleged share market malpractices involving Lanka Hospitals shares on Thursday, which sent shockwaves in the industry, sources said.
In what was inconceivable a few months ago actually happened and the FCID recorded a statement from him at a start of a probe in which several other high profile traders such as Mr. Jayaweera will also be called to record statements, they added.
The statement was on his share transactions in Lanka Hospitals just before a large parcel traded in 2011 when Singapore-based Fortis Global Healthcare Holdings (p) Ltd, owned by the founders of India’s Fortis Healthcare Ltd bought a minority stake in Sri Lanka’s Lanka Hospital Corp.
The privately-held company of Indian billionaire brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh bought a 28.6 per cent in Lanka Hospitals, which runs a 350-bed hospital and is majority owned by the government-owned Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation. Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was chairman of the hospital company during the tenure of the previous government.