The bail application of Sicille Kotelawala was rejected by the Colombo High Court today, and she was further remanded till April 27, 2016.
The wife of Lalith Kotelawala, chairman of Ceylinco Consolidated, she, along with her husband and several others were charged for financial fraud amounting to billions of rupees in the Golden Key Credit Company scam.
Sicille Kotelawala, fled the country in 2008 and has been evading arrest since then. However, on February 4th, upon her return to the country, she was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport and was subsequently handed over to the CID.
The total amount misappropriated in the Golden Key scam is believed to be Rs. 26 billion.
Estate Labourer / February 23, 2016
Karma has eventually caught up with the Doctor Lady!
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k.soysa / February 23, 2016
I remember you and your sister in the late ’50s. You were amongst the loveliest young women of the day and regarded to be most eligible. Your late father was a person greatly admired and respected. When I see your picture now, I ask myself, was all the gold and silver in the whole world worth the trauma you and your company caused to so many who lost their basic livelihood? Be the Christian you were brought-up and repent and be in prayer and your health and comfort maybe restored.
This happens to ALL who cheat. There is a Great God who look down from His throne and metes out justice.
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Yohan Benedict / February 23, 2016
Well said Mr. Soysa.
Retribution is for sure for those who use the name of GOD in vain
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Huna / February 24, 2016
Dear K. Soysa,
Allow me to rephrase a para.
“I ask myself, was all the gold and silver you earned by hurting so many people worth the trauma you are going through now?”
/Huna
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Paul / February 24, 2016
[Edited out] Please write instead of posting links – CT
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Kettikaran / February 24, 2016
My thoughts were similar to yours. I have met Sam PC and have dined with Lalith. Sicille was an outstanding beauty in youth and a fine dancer. Greed, ego and vanity has since consumed both Lalith and his wife. What was all that ill-gotten wealth brought them eventually. We are told she now has a psychiatric issue as well. Unsurprising – caged up in Singapore and the UK with Interpol notices hanging round your head. I recall the wise words of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan that earthly life is only a split second in the history of the world. What horrid games some play in this brief interlude.
I believe most of us can live peacefully and happily – if we chose to live honourably and within our means. This may sound cynical and defeatist. The Rajapakses may have destroyed that decent world and millions who believed and lived by that credo. My travels in India and to many places of worship there tell me average happiness in the world, as the Stoics would have it, is possible.
Kettikaran
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Devasiri / February 23, 2016
All the businessmen finally meet in HELL. Read Karl Marx’s DAS CAPITAL
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bo / February 23, 2016
Yeah but they all have a pukka time on earth with our defrauded money before they take their one-way ticket to hell. Bird in hand is better than 10-birds in Hell, accoridng to their viewpoint. Don’t you think so!
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BBS Rep / February 24, 2016
Heaven and hell were created in the imaginations of man.
All religions adopted this myth to advance their own base purposes and ended up defrauding the masses. When Cecile Kotalawala kicks the bucket she will go nowhere but to the ground if buried or blow in the wind if cremated. End of story.
Only good governance can protect each other from fraudsters of every kind including the Golden Key fraudster type. Good governance can also deliver a decent, safe and respectful coexistence to all citizens.
Unfortunately good governance in Sri Lanka is hard to come by because all politicians of all colours comprise the epitome of fraudsters available within Sri Lanka.
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janaka / February 24, 2016
The heaven and hell is almost always of ones own making? Buddha.
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Rohan / February 24, 2016
Is she worse than Gnanasara Aththa?
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Depositer / February 24, 2016
What bothers those of us who were ripped off by the Kotalawalas and their cohorts, is why the guilty parties are not in jail.
Their assets should be disposed of and we should be repaid in full, instead of the dribs and drabs that we are getting over the past few years.
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Nimal / February 24, 2016
Perfectly true. Why are they not exposed and brought to book? Why didn’t the government in power allow this Ponzi scheme? What happen to the other people or banks that defaulted the depositors in a similar scheme? Did anyone during the fall of this scheme rob the assets of this, once a national icon?
She is frail and sick and she should be given bail.
Many of my close relatives lost a lot from this Ponzi scheme, never listened to good advice and they deserve it.
Sri Lanka is a risky place to make an investment and I commend the decent private sector who seems to struggle to survive with so many odds stacked up against them and I know this as a big investor in the island.
As someone said the country must come out of the South East Asian mentality.
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Adrian / February 24, 2016
Why blame the person now? True she too is at fault. The system of governance permits such blunders. The politicians create such situations and then both businessmen and politicians exploits the situation that plunders the wealth of the ordinary people. Thereafter someday law punishes a few who are politically opposed or otherwise.
MR caused the harm to this conglomerate which problem could have been down sized and settled, instead the issues were made to blow out of proportion. One of the mistake they did was to inflate the land prices unnecessarily.
First, correct the monetary system by having properly constituted and self organized statutory bodies parallel and similar to FCID to audit and monitor all financial activities independently.The rest will fall in place.
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DPJ / February 24, 2016
This is the fate of all those who lived on other people’s monies. Just see what happened to the monetary wizard NU Jayawardene. He started eyeing for others money when in the Central Bank as Governor.The result was he was asked to step down in 1953 after an one man committee found him unsuitable to hold the post of Governor due to certain ugly financial transactions. He later founded the Mercantile Credit and carried on till 1990. With the monies siphoned from MCL he floated another 25 associate companies. In 1990 MCL hand liquidity problems and ended up with the MCL vested in the Central Bank. Thereafter it was Lalith Kotelawala’s term to become the all powerful financial wizard of the country. His brighter idea of Golden Key Credit Card could not be carried forward due to the vicious financial circus failing. Mahinda Rajapaksa is also responsible for the Lalith’s plight after he agreed to provide Rs.100 million to construct the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Homagama.He pulled out monies from all his associate companies forcing all his world to collapse.
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Backlash / February 24, 2016
DPJ
This talk about the Rajapakses trying to make a deal with the Rajapakse rogues has been there for sometime. When the struggling Depositors took to the streets several times, the Rajapakses had to act. It is known they sent that degenerate Kudu Mervin to Lalith for a Quid pro Quo. Naturally, Mervin tried to cash in the matter and the whole thing eventually fizzled out. Basil then entered the scene and gave false promises to the Depositors more than once he will help them. All he wanted was to, in the true Rajapakse tradition, make a fast buck behind the back of the Depositors. The amount asked/offered is much more than Rs.100 million. It included deals of sales of valuable GKCC/Kotelawala assets to close relatives and cronies of the Rajapakses.
The once respected Kotelawalas are no different to the notorious thieving family of the Medamulana Rajapakse thieves. The tears and curses of the nearly 10,000 depositors defrauded by Lalith K must strike somewhere. Ranil’s UNP made a more dependable move through the Central Bank and Ravi K. But this is yet to show results although dates and amounts to be awarded promised have all passed. Ravi K is no spring chicken and will not do anything for nothing.
Backlash
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Jerome / February 24, 2016
I do wholeheartedly agree that all crimes need to be punished with the level of punishment dished out according to the severity of the crime. But, ask yourself are the individuals in question to absorb 100% of the blame. I think not as stated in a previous comment the monitoring and auditing systems in place are questionable. Corruption within the reigning government was pathetically rampant and most of all it was the absolute greed of the depositors to blindly grab the high interest rates offered and also it was a ideal chance for the majority to hide their black money. I sympathise with the individuals who choose to blindly invest their entire livelihood in one basket on the other had I rejoice for all the greedy businessman, politicians,senior heads of the armed forces the religious organizations and clergy who hid all their ill gotten gains in this scheme. SERVERS YOU RIGHT SO NOW SUFFER AND REPENT AND FOREVER BURN IN HELL.
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Spring Koha / February 24, 2016
Sicille Kotelawela,
Notwithstanding your glittering past, you were part of an operation that cheated thousands of investors. You may not have been the linchpin, but you were surely aware of what was happening, and made no effort to prevent, or distance yourself from the debacle. You must work to ensure that full restitution is made in order to redeem yourself from the stigma that hangs over you.
It is a nonsense of our times that you should be refused bail (having returned of your own volition) while the evil bastard Gandasara is set free to resume his ungodly deeds. As they say in Chandrika’s old adopted town, c’est la vie.
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Upul / February 24, 2016
What an interesting helpless, clueless, wheelchair-bound image her lawyers created for the the public to consume. I doubt her final flight into Colombo was in Economy class.
I do not totally blame the Kotalawela’s for the financial frauds. They enjoyed the fruits and fame those crimes brought them. There is a difference. Ironically the Rajapakses thought othey had won the lottery and were scurrying to grab as much of the assets as they possibly can, before anyone noticed.
The Sri Lankan Airlines GSA in North America as well as the Ceylon Shipping Lines licence were surreptitiously transferred in the commotion.
The smarter thing to do is the punish those who used the companies in the group to enrich themselves. Lalith and Sicille would have had the lifestyle they enjoyed whether there was fraud or not. The others, the MD’s and Directors would not have enjoyed the riches they amassed, if not for the fraudulent schemes they orchestrated.
I know of one instance where one the the top directors convinced his childhood friend to deposit a few lakhs of his retirement money, ONE WEEK before Ceylinco went belly up. That was inhuman, criminal and many other things.
I also have NO sympathy for those who never gave a second thought as to how these companies were paying almost 10% over the market rates and thought they had reached heaven on earth. There is a reason why all civilised legal systems have laws pertaining to usury. And usury is not only about the taker but also about the payer.
As all great philosophies have foretold…what you do…you WILL pay for.
No hiding, no bullshit, no amnesty.
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vishvajith / February 25, 2016
Upul.
Legally, as a Limited Liability Co., the Kotelawala’s et al are not personally liable for the crash of TFC. During this time many Finance Setups crashed world over. Everyone was trying to turn fools gold to real and then crashed and burned.
As you mentioned, in between, Rajapaksas hijacked the Ceyinco Group Co’s. For some reason, Ceylinco Insurance held on ( please correct me, if I am wrong ).
Has Lalith K, bn able to get some of his companies back ?
Your thoughts please.
Vishvajith.
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Sri lath Perera / February 24, 2016
She deserves to be kept un till she pay every single Rupee to the account holder.
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