CIFL scam robs Pathirana's adviser post

Mr. P. V. Pathirana, a former general manager of the People's Bank, has been removed from the post he held as an adviser in the Finance ministry.

Mr. Pathirana also worked as an adviser in a project set up under World Bank aid.

The project had been deployed in order to provide financial aid for the small and medium scale industries which have fallen into trouble due to the current global economic crisis.

It is said that the main reason behind this decision is the order given by the Colombo Fort chief magistrate Mr. Thilina Gamage to issue notices to 3 Directors in the Central Investments & Finance PLC (CIFL) company including him to appear before the Court on the 16th September.

Even Mr. Gamini Karunathilake, who was the CEO of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) for a time, has been subjected to this accusation.

Mr. Karunathilake has been appointed as the CEO of CIFL on January this year, after the company was hit by the crisis.

It is said that it was the Central Bank which had recommended him for the job.

They have issued these cheques, with the intention of rebuilding the trust of the company by settling the deposit money of the customers, during the reformulating process of CIFL.

For that, he had signed for them under the capacity of CEO.

Apart from that, CIFL former Chairman and Director, Chartered Accountant Lakshman Rupasinghe, Directors Joseph Douglas and Ajith Prabath also have been accused of these "Cheque bounce case".
However, it is reported that all these people have been misled by the financial authorities.

The attorney who represented Mr. Rupasinghe and Mr. Karunathilake informed the Court that they were appointed recently, thus have no knowledge of the past transactions.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that it was the former CEO of Merchant Credit of Sri Lanka which is attached to BOC, Mr. Shirley Perera, who had held many key positions in CIFL including the release of its initial shares, up until the company was brought under the ASPIC company belonging to Deepthi Perera.

It is said that he is a person who had been warned by the Central Bank regarding the failure in reporting unpaid debts in Merchant Credit during his time of employment.

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