Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake comes with a history of scandals, many leaning towards fraud. However, despite his very questionable conduct, London based ‘The Banker’ magazine has named him the 2017 Finance Minister of the Year for Asia-Pacific.
Ravi Karunanayake
The Banker has recognized Karunanayake ‘for his efforts to steer Sri Lanka into a new era of economic reform and a change of mindset. “Crucially, Karunanayake secured a $1.5bn International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme that the country needed to avoid a balance of payments crisis, replenish reserves and rebuild confidence among international investors,” the magazine said in an article which announced Karunanayake as the winner for the Asia Pacific region.
However, just months back, in September, Karunanayake was in the centre of a fresh controversy where serious allegations were leveled against him by the opposition to the effect that he had imported luxury Prados in 2015 using vehicle permits which allowed only tractors to be imported.
Karunanayake was also accused of pilfering following the privatization deal of Sathosa.
Since assuming duties as the Finance Minister in 2015, Karunanayake is alleged to have ordered the Director General of Customs Jagath P. Wijeweera to grant sweeping duty concessions to his privately owned firm. Wijeweera had flatly refused the demand on the grounds that the country would lose millions of dollars. Because he could not continue to stand undue pressure being brought on him, Wijeweera tendered his resignation in May 2015 to Treasury Secretary Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga. Though Wijeweera said he was quitting due to “personal reasons,” he confessed to close friends in the Customs Department he could not bear Karunanayake’s interference into fiscal matters not only on behalf of his (Karunanayake’s) private firm but also for other various suspicious businessmen. For his private company Global Park which provides warehousing and logistical services, the Finance Minister had wanted duty concessions running into millions of dollars granted. Karunanayake had also been in the habit of telephoning Wijeweera almost every day to seek duty waivers, withdrawal of fines and other concessions for several businessmen.
In 2010, Karunanayake was charged with aiding and abetting businessman Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group, where he deposited US $ 3 million at the Kirulapona Standard Charted Bank Branch without the authority of the Central Bank. The case dragged on for years, and in 2015 under the present government, the Colombo High Court acquitted Karunanayake on charges of money laundering in violation of the Exchange Control Act.
jim softy / January 11, 2017
Will the Ravi Karunanayake do the same thing that is happening in India ?
Read this:
Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington’s role has been disguised only very superficially.
US-President Barack Obama has declared the strategic partnership with India a priority of his foreign policy. China needs to be reined in. In the context of this partnership, the US government’s development agency USAID has negotiated cooperation agreements with the Indian ministry of finance. One of these has the declared goal to push back the use of cash in favor of digital payments in India and globally.
On November 8, Indian prime minster Narendra Modi announced that the two largest denominations of banknotes could not be used for payments any more with almost immediate effect. Owners could only recoup their value by putting them into a bank account before the short grace period expired. The amount of cash that banks were allowed to pay out to individual customers was severely restricted. Almost half of Indians have no bank account and many do not even have a bank nearby. The economy is largely cash based. Thus, a severe shortage of cash ensued. Those who suffered the most were the poorest and most vulnerable. They had additional difficulty earning their meager living in the informal sector or paying for essential goods and services like food, medicine or hospitals. Chaos and fraud reigned well into December.
Four weeks earlier
Not even four weeks before this assault on Indians, USAID had announced the establishment of „Catalyst: Inclusive Cashless Payment Partnership“, with the goal of effecting a quantum leap in cashless payment in India. The press statement of October 14 says that Catalyst “marks the next phase of partnership between USAID and Ministry of Finance to facilitate universal financial inclusion”. The statement does not show up in the list of press statements on the website of USAID (anymore?). Not even filtering statements with the word “India” would bring it up. To find it, you seem to have to know it exists, or stumble upon it in a web search. Indeed, this and other statements, which seemed rather boring before, have become a lot more interesting and revealing after November 8.
Reading the statements with hindsight it becomes obvious, that Catalyst and the partnership of USAID and the Indian Ministry of Finance, from which Catalyst originated, are little more than fronts which were used to be able to prepare the assault on all Indians using cash without arousing undue suspicion. Even the name Catalyst sounds a lot more ominous, once you know what happened on November 9.
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Emanuel / January 11, 2017
Because of exchange control regulations for several years Indian web business runs cash less with PayPal paying them at the end of year. Most Indians ie the 30% on internet prefer the cashless like most western nations.
Chinese yuan is in the basket of international currency and the maximum they would do is revalue. America would lose if it has full trade war with Mexico or China. Trump needs china to make Kim Jong Un vanish.Jefferson lost the trade war with Europe.
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Emanuel / January 12, 2017
The western Banksters have propped up Ravi K as Asia Pacific’s man for true bond deals. Await helicopter money.
Now he is just another tainted South Asian politician in the line of IMF chief Christine Lagarde.
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jehan / January 11, 2017
these awards are meaningless, remember obama got nobel peace price before he started.
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Leonard / January 12, 2017
They gave Obama for hypothetical hope and change and show political correctness.
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Rajev / January 14, 2017
Obama got the Nobel peach award is a pre caution measure for him not to attack Iran or be more aggressive on Muslims countries,. it was a very good decision by the Nobel community,. we think small they think far superior,. IMF is happy with GoSL financial planing,. so western organizations are appreciating our Finance Minister,. i feel proud. for Mr.Ravi K.
CT and Mahinda’s tails can raise their eyebrows or what ever,. but we the public dont care. we thank and feel proud of the prestigious award
“Finance Minister of the Year – Asia-Pacific”
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Upali / January 11, 2017
We were concerned the way The Banker Magazine was making awards to local banks and their validity as the local banks were using the awards as advertising material.
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Emanuel / January 12, 2017
“The Banker” is a private group of Bank `trade union` journalist not any form of authority or organisation. Almost all banks in the west are private entity’s and that is of major concern to citizen when tax payers money is used to rescue these banks.
The Banker did not predict the 2007 western financial collapse In 2005, Rajan warned about the growing risks in the financial system and proposed policies that would reduce such risks. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called the warnings “misguided” and Rajan himself a “luddite”.
Rajan also warned Modi for swapping $1.5 billion with Sri lanka.
Ravi K worked for Richard Branson the glorified English pirate.
With Brexit the UK is coming for commonwealth nations. Bleedit.
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mervyn fernando / January 12, 2017
Arjuna Alosius and Ravi Karunanayake are partners of the Sunday leader newspaper. General Manager is Barush Akbar cousin of Mela Karunanayake wife of Ravi. All are responsible for Central Bank Bond Scam. This is UNP Yahapalaya style democracy and financial fraud. This is worst financial f4raus than rajapakse company. Nevw=ver vote for UNP again.
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Rajev / January 14, 2017
so u want to vote for Mahinda and Wimal ? lol
how much money you have in black? in past 12 yrs..
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jay / January 12, 2017
This man is a Bull SH****R. This award is a disgrace all the other proper finance ministers in the region.
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NAK / January 12, 2017
The Banker has exposed where it really reside,the waste bin!
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Every Siant has a past ! / January 14, 2017
Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake comes with a history of scandals, many leaning towards fraud. However, despite his very questionable conduct,
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Few important points to ponder,
1) has the alligations levelled at him proven by the court of law?
2) Do we expect that all saints of today are not sinner of the past or simply let our prejudise pick and choose individuals ?
3) Is Ravi a rainbow of hope for the struggling Country and people today if yes or may be ,does he not derserve a chance to prove himself ,should he not be given the time as much as we have given many in the past?
4) Do we let our prejudise overule and block the possible ablity of a man who may really end the suffering of the people,how are we to know if we do not let him to his job ?
5) don’t everyone derserve a chance to prove thier capabilities as much as every sngle one of us yearn for ?
6)Should we not have a little patience of another may be 24 + months ,which is only fair to see the outcome of the present government’s output which is fair by all means by a people who have in past endured blunders of years with many other governments ?
If we can wait for these few months and not get tired of waitting nor become sheep to wolves to be eaten , we may know by th next election where we all stand and what kind of a government we all need.
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Every Stroy has Three sides / January 14, 2017
Wijeweera tendered his resignation in May 2015 to Treasury Secretary Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga. Though Wijeweera said he was quitting due to “personal reasons,” he confessed to close friends in the Customs Department he could not bear Karunanayake’s interference into fiscal matters not only on behalf of his (Karunanayake’s) private firm but also for other various suspicious businessmen.
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These are pure speculations, can you prove it and how sincere has he been in the past with his job?
how about doing some investigation on his past job record ?
Every story has three sides here, one is Wijeweera’s, the other is the speculator and the third is the truth.
The truth can never ever be established , truth is like the huge Ocean ,you can only see apart of the Ocean when you view it from where you stand so is the truth .
Truth can never be told & what can be told is never the truth
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Stick to your gut proven job. / January 14, 2017
Arjuna Alosius and Ravi Karunanayake are partners of the Sunday leader newspaper. General Manager is Barush Akbar cousin of Mela Karunanayake wife of Ravi. All are responsible for Central Bank Bond Scam. This is UNP Yahapalaya style democracy and financial fraud. This is worst financial f4raus than rajapakse company. Nevw=ver vote for UNP again.
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mervyn fernando ,your name seems synonymous with Abling of Kopi kade, are you aware you could be sued for this irresponsible literal Diarrhea?
Just stick to your gossips of verbal Diarrhea of lies and dividing people like Abling of Kopikade and let your offspring stick to hacking and know that many have in possesion of web crawlers themsleves and be careful when you see an easy router to cling on to,it could be a ploy ..
and clean the dog shit around,you are on micro cameras.
becareful also of ,
Killer Kattadiya and cure through superstition
When you have a problem there are always two ways to look at it. The first is through rational thinking and maybe scientific principles. The other is the easier method of irrational thought. At least, this latter method provides momentary relief. In the context of our country, Sri Lanka is filled with traditions, both local and imported from our closest South Asian neighbour India. While the rituals and traditions make Sri Lanka rich in culture, unfortunately, it has encouraged people to choose irrational explanations for their predicaments.
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WoodyTown Cow! / January 14, 2017
mervyn fernando -Stop kidding yourself, not everyone eat grass.
Umm bah hahh.
One of the main blunders made by MR is that he gave jobs to the underserving and unqualified .
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A Honary member of the show shit ty ! / January 14, 2017
mervyn fernando .we know the mans …………..
Mixed up wirings –
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Leonard The nari ! / January 14, 2017
Internet brigade is not watching you he is your FB friend.
I feel sorry for the lad who hacked the President’s account & anyone connected to him.
The entire spy agents and Crime detection orgs of the Globe will be his favorite followers.
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Lanka Nitizen / January 15, 2017
so u want to vote for Mahinda and Wimal ? lol how much money you have in black? in past 12 yrs..
Rajesh ,
may be some of his kin or next to kin with fake qualifications and forged degress may have got a job or some perks from MR , now most of these types who got such jobs are worried of being exposed .
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Fathima Fukushima / January 15, 2017
Indian government said Fonseka was the Best Army Commander in the World soon after he won the war!
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Heliotis / January 20, 2017
Not true they just knew him but they said Ranil was known the best.
½ China & ½ India pawn.
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