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Megapolis minister tells Police Chief to probe Horton Square directors’ dealings
View(s):Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka has called on Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara to investigate the background and dealings of several directors of Horton Square (Pvt) Ltd, a company which proposes to build two 75-storey towers in Horton Place. Referring to the Sunday Times story last week, Minister Ranawaka said he called upon the IGP to check whether Ramasamy Muthusamy Manivannan, a director of Horton Square, has major transactions with another director, Jaya Sudhir Jayaram, who has a history of questionable dealings such as “exploiting the Iraqi oil-for-food programme”.
The Minister has also asked the IGP to investigate the links between Paradise Island Holdings and RAK Company Administration. The Sunday Times last week revealed that an initial shareholder of Horton Square was an entity called Paradise Island Holdings Ltd registered to PO Box 33582, Ras al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. That address belongs to RAK Company Administration FZ LLC or RAKCA which calls itself “the largest Registered Agent for incorporation Offshore & Onshore Company [sic] regulated under Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority”.
The IGP has been requested to check whether Sudhir Jayaram has dealings with Mossack Fonseka as his address in the company registration form is in the British Virgin Islands. Minister Ranawaka also requests the IGP to investigate the multiple companies formed by Mr Manivannan and his “opaque financial transactions, poor reporting, frequent share transfers and labyrinthine business practices” as mentioned in the Sunday Times article.
Among Mr Manivannan’s companies are Supreme Global Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, formerly known as Lanka Consult Holdings (Pvt) Ltd; SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd; SupremeSAT Investments (Pvt) Ltd; Supreme Solutions (Pvt) Ltd; and Singha Lanka Investment (Pvt) Ltd. Minister Ranawaka’s letter to the IGP raises the questions: “Why in excess of US$ 200mn was paid to acquire possession of Horton place property from Purni Edwards? Investigate the allegation of Rienzie Edwards who is the husband of Purni Edwards and they have been indicted for allegedly defrauding victims of more than US$ 50mn in the US.”
It is revealed that the Urban Development Authority has instructed the consultant of Horton Square (Pvt) Ltd to fulfil 11 statutory requirements prior to issuing construction clearance. “Since they have not fulfilled all the requirements, UDA has not issued any construction clearance to ‘The Horton Square (Pvt) Ltd…,” the letter states. The permissions already granted by the UDA to the company are preliminary planning clearance for proposed development; and permission for soft launch of groundbreaking ceremony.
Hard construction will not be permitted until the company facilitates widening a section of the access road along the southern boundary of the site to a width of 12.2m by gifting a strip of land to the Colombo municipality; secures clearance from the Central Environmental Authority; and get clearance for its Traffic Impact Assessment.