What has the author Inice Chirco Mcpherson written?

Central bank of sri lanka decision of golden key depositers?

Priding themselves as philanthropists, espousing the word of God, the very name Deshamanya Dr. Lalith Kotelawala and Lady Dr. Sicille Kotelawala evoked respect, trust and above all a sense of security. Which is why 9054 people in this country, trusted the duo with millions,in some cases tens of millions ofrupees in life savings.Perhaps part of those millions belonging to some depositors was black money. Perhaps some of them invested their monies to evade paying tax to the government. Perhaps they were just plain greedy or a mixture of both. After all, why did they not invest the monies in a reputable bank? Whatever the case, they were confident their savings/loot would be safe in the hands of two human beings held in the highest esteem. When Golden Key collapsed like a pack of cards in December last year and as the sordid details unraveled in staggered scenes of drama, horrified, dismayed depositors who had been earning as much as 30 and 32 percent on their investments at Golden Key were forced to come to grips with the fact that soon their monies would be confined to mere numbers on a piece of paper. Soon to be identified as one of the biggest white collar crimes ever committed in this country. Benevolent father of charity ------------------------------- Embraced as a benevolent father of charity, a lover of humankind, Lalith Kotelawala is today spoken of with venom by the very people who claimed to be his friends and say they trusted him implicitly. Today, these same people spit his name out with vitriol. Thousands of families robbed of a monthly interest amounting from thousands to millions of rupees earned off their capital investment with Golden Key are today destitute. They are shattered. They are broken. One of the biggest depositors who begged anonymity told The Sunday Leader, 'There is only one thing left for me to do now. Commit suicide." Having earned his millions, he says off an import export car business in Japan,he invested close to a staggeringRs.180 million with Golden Key because he trusted and above all respected Lalith Kotelawala. "This was no Sakvithi," he said, adding however that today his one time benefactor who gave him a 32 percent interest on his capital is"nothing but a common crook." A multi millionaire more than 150 times over this man is today struggling to pay the medical bills of his four and a half year old son who is suffering from a brain tumour. "Kotelawala is now attempting to do a Saradiel," he charged asserting the Ceylinco Chief is attempting to "take from the rich and give the poor." "He will use our millions to pay off over 7000 depositors who had much smaller deposits and people like me will be left in the lurch," he said. A paltry sum ------------------ At least one depositor from this list, Lady Dr. Sicille Kotelawala will have no such qualms. Her investment in Golden Key was to the tune of Rs. 10.6 million only. A paltry sum by her standards. Even that, most likely is what she skimmed off from the company itself. After all, according to court documents she was paid a staggering Rs. 3.5 million a month for being the Deputy Chairman. To the contrary, H. K. Dharmadasa according to the depositors list is the third highest investor having invested Rs. 92.5 million in Golden Key. A hard nosed businessman if ever there was one, nevertheless it would appear that Dharmadasa popularly known as Nawaloka Mudalali has been taken for the biggest ride of his life. Or the most expensive, whichever way one wants to look at it. For, going by available evidence he will in all probability have to kiss his 92.5 million bucks goodbye! Unless Kotelawala can perform a miracle. But then again for Nawaloka Mudalali, this amount is just chicken feed. He is rich enough not to have to worry about paying for groceries or medical bills for that matter. From lower middle class families to upper, from rich to super rich there was no class distinction between the 9054 people who entrusted their monies with Golden Key. Beginning with a deposit of Rs. 2, 981.83 by Mr. W. A. M. Perera, the list snowballs into a final Rs. 200 million deposit by Milton Karunaratne bringing the grand total to Rs. 26 billion. No religious distinction ------------------------------ There is no religious distinction either. The Bishop of Ratnapura, Dr. Cletus Chandrasiri Perera has invested Rs. 40 million. In similar vein Ven. Rathanasara Thero from Kegalle has invested Rs. 17 million. As has Ven. B. Somawansa Thero - Rs. 41.4 million. His Lordship, Dr. Cletus Chandrasiri Perera confirmed that he had indeed invested Rs. 40 million in Golden Key. "Dr. Lalith Kotelawala is a personal friend which is why I put my money there," the Bishop said, adding, "We are hopeful we will get our monies back." Asked if Kotelawala or anyone from the company had contacted him and indicated how and when they would return his investment the Bishop said, "No. We are only going by what we read and hear in the media," he said. The high priest of a temple in Matara who also requested anonymity has invested over Rs. 17 million in Golden Key. He said the money does not belong to him but to a Japanese national who is a "close friend." He maintains that the monies were invested so the temple could use the interest amounting to Rs. 342,000 per month towards the development of the temple. Distraught, asserting he now does not know how to explain the loss to his Japanese friend the high priest is at his wits end. He said he has now approached a politician to intervene and use political muscle to help him recover his capital. A double blow --------------------- And in what seems like a double blow Sri Lanka's Cricket Captain and national hero Mahela Jayawardene, injured in Lahore last week, has invested Rs. 10 million. The same Jayawardene who was smart enough to quit the captaincy before the thugs in the selection committee dumped him, was not smart enough to know that even Kotelawala cannot pay such exuberant interest and make a profit. Former cricketing legend Roshan Mahanama was no better. He had invested Rs. 11 million ofhis hard earned money. Unlike Nawaloka Mudalali both cricketers are known to be gentlemen of the highest calibre and honest to a fault. Gwendoline Inice Lindsay White, daughter-in-law of Eliyantha Lindsay White, a close confidant to President Mahinda Rajapakse, has also invested Rs. 63.4 million in Golden Key. Her brother answered our phone call and said the monies were "a collective investment" earned off businesses they are engaged in Japan. "I don't know what will happen to our monies. At the moment we are clueless," he said, voicing similar sentiments to thousands of other depositors. The strange thing is that most of the big depositors are businessmen who understand finance. They would have known that the unrealistically high interest rates paid by Golden Key cannot be sustained. They would have also known that it was not registered with the Central Bank. But then again, the company has been in existence since 1978,and the collapse of the Ceylinco empire has been predicted for more than a decade. You can run a pyramid scheme for so long only if new depositors kept putting money in. It is to the credit of the Kotelawalas that they took so many people for a ride for so long. Hobnobbed with presidents Prasanna Hennayake, of Hennayake Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd. is a company specialising in photography and videography. Hennayake is a well known and reputed photographer of weddings and hobnobbed with presidents and leading politicians. He is also the current official photographer for the Cricket Board. He invested Rs. 50 million in Golden Key. Hennayake says that apart from attending a meeting at the BMICH which was chaired by Lalith Kotelawala where he had promised to return their monies he has not been informed sinceof any kind of repayment of his Rs. 50 million. "I don't believe anymore he has money, if not he wouldn't be remanded," he said. Asked how he had amassed a fortune of Rs. 50 million, Hennayake explained, "This is hard earned money. I had a two acre land in Padukka with a nice bungalow. The Ceylinco Group bought this whole place. They didn't actually pay me but advised me to invest the monies from this sale in Golden Key. At first it was Rs. 40 million. For which I was paid an interest of 30 percent. Subsequently, Hennayake says he sold another land and house he had purchased at Rajagiriya for his daughter and sold at her request. "Around this time I was telephoned by Golden Key and asked to invest a further 10 million rupees. As a result on November 3, last year, both my wife and I personally met Khavan Perera, at the time CEO of Golden Key, and he assured us the monies would be safe. Perera gave us a guarantee saying that if there was any kind of doubt on my part he would release the monies within a month." Learnt of the collapse ---------------------------- Elaborating Hennayake said, "When in December we learnt of the collapse of the company we again met Khavan Perera. He promised to release my Rs.50 million capital investment on January 20, 2009. But by that time he was in jail." "It is off the interest I earned on this money I paid for two of my children's education overseas. Now I am saddled with not only their education fees but also with a mortgage for a new house I purchased in Boralesgamuwa. Seylan Bank collected the repayment on this mortgage from the interest I earned off my investment at Golden Key. It is only after the bank recovered the monthly installment was I released the balance, " Hennayake said. Hennayake insists he has nothing to hide. "In 2002 the government asked us to show all our assets and money. We were granted a tax amnesty. I have declared everything. I have shown it to income tax, I don't have anything to hide," he said. M. Samad, had invested over Rs. 80 million with Golden Key. He is devastated. He said, "This is mass fraud. Whoever gave him (Lalith Kotelawala) the title of Deshamanya should be kicked." Too late. It was either J.R. Jayewardene or Ranasinghe Premadasawho gave him that title. Both are now dead. "We are shattered" ------------------------------- Samad and his wife are heartbroken. An engineer and a chartered accountant respectively the couple say they earned their millions through years of hard work in Bahrain. "We are shattered. This situation has caused such a lot of conflict at home. We are also Muslims and not supposed to earn money off interest payments. But we did. And now we are living in turmoil," he said. Samad maintains he "trusted" the Ceylinco Group and never dreamt the company and its subsidiary Golden Key would go bankrupt. They continue they say to live in hope, but assert that Lalith Kotelawala "never called us" and to date, no repayment plan has yet taken shape. K. R. M. Weerakoon voiced similar sentiments. She has together with her daughters invested a total of Rs. 120 million in Golden Key. "We trusted Lalith. We trusted him too much.Only now we realise what type of a man he is. I trusted and respected him. Now it is all gone," she lamented. Weerakoon describing herself as a widow says this was her life savings from a garment and horticulture business she has owned since 1973. She says she never withdrew the interest of her capital investment of Rs. 63.5 million but allowed the monies to accrue. "He is the biggest crook" --------------------------- She said it is she who encouraged her two daughters and friends to invest in Golden Key. "But now I learn he (Lalith Kotelawala) is the biggest crook." Weerakoon said she has heard that Kotelawala has paid back depositors who have invested less than Rs. 1 million in Golden Key - after having deducted the interest due. "This is his repayment plan. Obviously it does not bode well for bigger depositors like myself," she said. And the tales continue. Anoop Kundanmal, a highly respected businessman and member of the popular Kundanmal chain has invested Rs. 23.8 million in Golden Key. He said so far he has received no assurance at all that he will get his investment back. He said in fact they have been informed that the company will deduct due rebates from the capital and return only a part of their monies. "So for those of us who did not collect our interest payment every month - we will have to say goodbye to those monies," Kundanmal said. "Respectable, educated" crooks ---------------------------------- Even well known criminal lawyer and Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Italy, Hemantha Warnakulasuriya is not spared. His investment of Rs. 13.5 million is all but now confined to mere digits on a piece of paper. It is going to take all Warnakulasuriya's diplomatic skills to negotiate his way out of this one. At the end of the day, there is no difference between Sakvithi and the Kotelawalas. It only proves that a good education and a respectable family background stands for nothing. Societies all over the world seem to be full of "respectable, educated" crooks. No doubt the Kotelawalas will go down in history as the masterminds behind the country's biggest fraud. But that is no consolation to the depositors. They may have been greedy and stupid but that is not a crime. Fraud is.. The top ones ----------------- MR P P B P GURUGE 70,000,000.00 MRS NAYESHA RANASINGHE 71,456,813.87 MR NIHAL HOOLE 73,000,000.00 MR M SAMAD 80,006,307.07 MR R D S K WIJEWICKRAMA 88,154,914.78 MR M A S A WIJAYASIRI 88,400,000.00 MR H K DHARMADASA 92,500,000.00 MR A S SILVA 170,000,000.00 MR MILTON KARUNARATNE 200,000,000.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some top investors -------------------- MR CHRISTOPHER LEONARD FERNANDO 50,000,000.00 MR M J A KREITMEIR 50,000,000.00 MR PRASANNA UDAYA LAL HENNAYAKE 50,000,000.00 MR D M L P DISSANAYAKE 50,270,913.40 MR M V M D R NISHANTHA 53,000,000.00 MR G W LAW DAVIS 61,976,512.52 MRS GWENDOLINE INICE LINDSAY WHITE 63,450,000.00 MR V.K. CHOKSY 63,508,836.03 MRS K R M WEERAKOON 63,582,015.21 MR RANJITH SUMANASEKERA 66,556,823.06 MRS J M G THUSHARI 68,781,270.09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Those holding investments between Rs. 30 and Rs.50 mn --------------------------------------------------------------- MR C R PERERA 30,000,000.00 DR D S J JAYASINGHE 30,000,000.00 MR K KUMARANAYAGAM 30,000,000.00 MR W R TISSERA 30,000,000.00 MR A M DE MEL 30,000,000.33 MR/MS RANIL C / RAMANI D V WAGISWARA 30,005,000.00 MR M V M D V M A SHANTHAPRIYA 30,050,000.00 MR D W T ATHUKORALA 30,075,143.84 MR C WICKRAMARATNA 30,200,000.00 DR PANTHIYAGE UPALI EGERTON FERNANDO 30,400,000.00 MR ERATH KUMAR KARUNARATNE 30,953,323.11 MR G G GUNASENA 31,000,000.00 DR H M K DE SILVA 31,167,597.53 MR H D GUNASEKERA 31,189,811.76 MRS D A PUSHPA JENAT MALLIKA PREMARATHNE 31,500,000.00 MR E L SENANAYAKE 31,600,000.00 MR D K DASSANAYAKE 33,011,392.36 MR UPALI S WEDAGE 33,500,000.08 BRIG R M B P RANASINGHE 33,600,000.00 MR N C ABESINGHE 34,141,037.92 MR V SENEVIRATNE 34,500,000.00 MR MAKUMBURAGE WIJITHA PERERA 34,500,001.38 MR K T K KOTELAWELA 35,000,000.00 MR KOSHY THOMAS 35,000,000.00 MR R L FONSEKA 35,000,000.00 MR S DILAN ABEYEWARDENE 35,000,000.00 MR DHANAPALA MAHAGAMMULLE GAMAGE 35,000,000.96 MR M B MOHAMED FAIZAL 36,000,000.00 MRS SHIROMALA JASINTHA WANIGASINGHE 37,800,000.00 MR MOHAN GILBERT 38,800,000.00 REV A R C PEIRIS 40,000,000.00 REV BISHOP OF RATNAPURA 40,000,000.00 MR D C ABEYWARDENE 40,000,000.00 MR MAYURA APARTMENTS 40,000,000.00 MR NELSON THOMAS 40,000,000.00 MRS M RITA 40,100,000.00 MR M P AGAMBARAM 40,650,000.00 REV RAJA PERERA 41,050,000.00 VEN B SOMAWANSA THERO 41,400,000.00 MRS J M RAUX 45,000,000.00 MR R P P SENARATHNA 47,000,000.00 MR R A D S S RANDENI 48,200,000.00 MISS P U S D FERNANDO 48,932,639.96 MR D THEODORE CLARENCE RANASINGHE 49,150,647.31 MRS KUMARI W M T WIJERATNE 49,667,917.06 MR D M L P DISSANAYAKE 49,729,086.60 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Those holding investments between Rs. 10 to Rs. 30 mn --------------------------------------------------------------- MR K M SOMASIRI 10,100,000.00 MRS SWINEITHAA SENADIYRA 10,100,000.00 MR VERNAN DODWELL JOSE ABEYSUNDARA 10,100,000.00 MR A M N ATAPATTU 10,128,510.88 MRS K R M WEERAKOON 10,129,064.41 MRS K R M WEERAKOON 10,134,971.76 MR GAMINI JAYASURIYA 10,140,147.15 MRS TAMARA ANNE PERERA 10,150,000.00 MR P B L COORAY 10,155,493.06 MRS K R M WEERAKOON 10,190,437.46 MR N N T PRIYANTHA 10,200,000.00 MR N W E R NANAYAKKARA 10,200,000.00 DR S L G JAYASURIYA 10,200,000.00 MR D ANIL KUMARASIRI ADIKARAM 10,228,389.05 MR UPALI WARAGODA 10,250,000.00 DR H A D A HETTIARACHCHI 10,281,301.13 MR HECTOR WIJERATHNE 10,300,000.00 MRS LILANI MIGNONE BALASURIYA 10,300,000.00 MR T H S ABEYRATNE 10,300,000.00 MR E A M L EDIRISINGHE 10,304,266.47 MR/MS R C / S R DE SILVA 10,326,923.08 MR P S FERNANDO 10,332,761.47 MRS DEEPANI THARANGANI DHARMASIRI 10,350,000.00 MRS J N D BANDARANAIKE 10,367,315.84 REV P D S B RATHNASINGHE 10,391,300.00 MR PIYADASA HEVAPATHIRANAGE 10,400,000.00 MR B RANJITH CHERUKA JUD FONSEKA 10,450,000.00 MR KAHINGALA SADDASENA 10,452,133.42 MR JAYAMPATHI PALIPANE 10,453,900.00 MR M A S D COSTA 10,462,626.19 MR P D D FERNANDO 10,481,757.82 MR A G C PIGERA 10,500,000.00 MR A S R ARSAKULARATNE 10,500,000.00 MR D M DEMOTTE 10,500,000.00 MRS H A K NAYANA DUSHANTHI 10,500,000.00 MR K M P L PERERA 10,500,000.00 MRS KANTHI DE SILVA 10,500,000.00 MRS P R DE SILVA 10,500,000.00 DR V S HETTIARACHCHI 10,500,000.00 MRS W E S D PEIRIS 10,500,000.00 MR JAYANTHA JAYASINGHE GUNAWARDANE 10,510,821.52 MRS PEARL DE FONSEKA 10,524,335.88 MR SUNIL WIJETUNGE 10,534,680.00 MR N D JAYAWICKRAMA 10,562,540.13 MRS C S PEIRIS 10,600,000.00 LADY DR S P C KOTELAWALA 10,600,000.00 MRS S R E SIRIMALI 10,600,000.00 MS GAYANI SUMUDU DHARM WANNI ARACHCHIGE 10,630,886.60 PROF P H G FONSEKA 10,651,678.48 MR M A C B PERERA 10,677,954.03 MR J A DAVIS 10,700,000.00 MRS M C WEERATUNGA 10,763,200.00 MR NIHAL KALUARACHCHI 10,800,000.00 MR P R ABEYASEKARA 10,840,000.00 MR L SIRISENA 10,900,100.00 MR K S M KUMARATUNGE 10,920,000.00 MR G A HIDELARATCHI 11,000,000.00 MR HERBERT BERUWALAGE 11,000,000.00 MRS L S GURUSINGHE 11,000,000.00 MR MAHESH MUTHUTHANTHRI 11,000,000.00 MR R L J WICKREMERATNE 11,000,000.00 MR ROSHAN MAHANAMA 11,000,000.00 MR S V R PERERA 11,000,000.00 MRS VICTORINE WANIGASEKERA 11,000,000.00 MRS W E S D PEIRIS 11,000,000.00 MR W R V NAWARATHNA 11,000,000.00 MR Y D W M R A DISSANAYAKE 11,000,000.00

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