28 March, 2024

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Ravi K Caught With Pants Down

Former Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake was completely exposed during evidence yesterday after all officials of the State Banks said that they were lied to by the Minister regarding the Bond auctions.

Ravi and Arjuna

Eight witnesses from the Bank of Ceylon (BoC), the National Savings Bank (NSB) and People’s Bank including the Chairmen gave evidence on events leading up to the two auctions, all of whom attested to two separate meetings chaired by the former Minister on 28 March and 30 March 2016, instructing them to bid low.

The officials said that much to their surprise and despite assurance that no one bidding higher would be given the deal by Karunanayake, Perpetual Treasuries bid higher and were granted the lion share of the auctioned bids.

The officers said that this was the first time such instructions was given by a Minister of Finance.

Testifying further the Chairmen and other high ranking officials said that they were instructed by the Minister and the Central Bank to recruit certain individuals to the treasury departments of the Banks.

One such culprit was Naveen Anuradha who featured extensively as one of the wheeler dealers together with Chief Dealer of EPF Saman Kumara, both whom were stationed at their respective places by Arjuna Mahendran and Ravi Karunanayake.

NSB Head of Treasury Division N.P. Lionel testifying before the Commission explained how the “game was played”.

Describing the appointment of Naveen Anuradha to the NSB, the witness said that there was a requirement for a dealer to the NSB as they wanted to expand the trading activities. Naveen Anuradha had been appointed to the NSB on February 1, 2015.

The witness said that there was an experienced dealer called Abeysinghe who had been working at that time at the NSB, but Naveen Anuradha had been appointed directly as the Chief Dealer.

ASG De Livera: Did he give you any advice?

W: Yes he told me to inform him before I do deals.

ASG: What did you tell then?

W: I said I don’t care about you. I will do what I want. And I informed this immediately to the higher authority of the bank and told that I cannot work with him.

ASG: Then what happened.

W: My dealing capacity of Rs. 1 billion had been withdrawn and I could not deal thereafter.

ASG: What did he talk with you in the dealing room.

W: He had said that he (Naveen Anuradha) has relationships with Mr. Ravi Karunanayake.

When Justice Prasanna Jayawardena asked as to what Naveen Anuradha was doing in the dealing activities at the NSB, the witness said that Naveen Anuradha had increased the volume of trading with Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, Pan Asia Bank and Acuity Securities.

Justice Prasanna Jayawardena: Did those activities of Naveen Anuradha result in NSB gaining more profits compared to other times?

W: No the profits were the same.

Earlier it was revealed that Saman Kumara was put to the EPF dealing room by Arjun Mahendran.

The AGs department suspended the Cross Examination of Arjun Mahendran to bring the new witnesses in after Mahendran insisted that he was not aware of anything untoward happening.

Mahnedran, giving evidence on a phone conversation on March 29, between Aloysius and Kasun Palisena which clearly indicated the former possessed inside information dismissed the conversation as “false bravado”.

However, the damning evidence given by the Officials put to rest that Aloysius had in fact had all relevant information regarding the meetings which took place prior to the bond auctions at which the Minister had told the Banks to bid at a lower rate.

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Latest comments

  • 6
    0

    i’am sure ravi k will say these bankers are all lying and this is a conspiracy against him.Even the aloysius phone records whre it is mentioned meetings withRK he says it must be referiing to some other person..If it had said ravi k he would have said the same thing that there aremany ravi k’s in this country. .mahendran has gone a step further and said AM refres to angelo matthews.All these buggers will take things seriously only if they are arrested and charged quickly.

  • 7
    0

    once a rogue always a rogue

  • 3
    0

    When all problems in this country is solved we will be living in a new nation called UBC – United Bharat China

  • 11
    0

    Shame on the Yahapalanaya Govt for not doing a thing to prosecute Ravi K

    Over to the Sri lankan voters come next election!

  • 3
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    while the pants were down Arjun Mahendran made use of the small willy.Now Ravi K has to turn around in the opposite direction.

  • 10
    0

    Feel sorry about “intellectuals”, “opinion leaders”, “experts” etc., etc., who expected “good governance”, “free of corruption” from the current bunch. Specially from the UNP!

    Ravi K is the all time king of corruption! And, I think, there should be an investigation to probe the so called young parliamentarians like Kavinda Jaya, Sujeeva Sera who are trying hard to revamp this dead corp. Who knows the amount he has paid these so called “youngsters” out of the public pocket!

  • 5
    0

    I am just wondering if this bond scam circus will actually result in a conviction. Naming & shaming the ring master & all the performers is not good enough because these are habitual white collar criminals who would exploit the system at any given opportunity & are not put off by such adverse publicity. If at all, gives them more credibility in their line of work. In any other democratic developed country, it would be the end of their careers & most likely to affect their personal lives as well, as no one would touch them even with a barge pole but not in SL because, over here, money talks, irrespective of how it’s earned.

    It’s not the first time RK has been caught with his pants down but is still in politics & even hads the audacity to say that he honorably resigned from his Finance Ministerial post. Unless the whole bunch, including the cronies who accepted the scraps from the table, are punished & fined for the losses uncured, this investigation will be an expensive circus for the tax payers.

  • 2
    0

    Remember approximately two years ago world bank accused a business woman in Srilanka for accepting cheques through unknown people tossed from Bangladesh and China , I believe through the world bank??
    She bluffed and bluffed saying she did not know the source of the cheques,
    Then the news came that she was involved in some irrigation in SL.
    Then the WHOLE STORY WAS MUZZLED AND COVERED UP.
    SO ARE WE IN FOR ANOTHER DIG UP INVOLVING YAMPAL GOVERNMENT??
    Skeletons will never stay quiet will keep bopping up to SCREW THE THIEVES AND CULPRITS AND THEY HAVE TO LIVE WITH UTTER SHAME AND DISGRACE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.
    KARMA IS BITCH WILL COME BACK WITH VENGEANCE TO PUNISH THE SINNERS.

    • 1
      1

      Analyst: where did you leran KArma ?

      • 0
        1

        Jimmy boy, he learnt it from your wife.

  • 2
    0

    Ravi Caught not only with his pants down, but also with his underwear down

  • 1
    1

    Some one wrote I KNOW NOTHING RAVI LEft from Kotte and he is heading to some other electorate where most of the voters are poor and uninformed as well as are mostly catholic. Is that true or he will be jail in jail with some unknown luck to Sri lankan people.

  • 2
    0

    Ravi K and so many others have been caught with NO pants at all!! But, they get even better pants and just carry on regardless!!

  • 1
    0

    The man behind Ravi K is none other than Ranil Wickramasinghe or Mr Cleanup. It’s high time that the people of this country must unite and forcefully remove them from office. If not Ranil will sure to reappoint these crooks again. Oh Lord, why is not this country is not blessed with honest people?

  • 0
    0

    Waiting for Vishwamithra ,Shyamon J or Emil V to write some BS on this.

  • 0
    0

    And still he is the deputy leader???? Wow I also wanna be a politician !!!:)

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