NAMAL, FIVE OTHERS NAMED AS SUSPECTS
Hello Corp share purchase probe
The FCID on a directive by the Attorney General yesterday named Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa and five others as suspects over the inquiry conducted into the alleged purchasing of shares of Hello Corp using ill-gotten funds of Gowers Corporation.
According to the FCID findings Gowers Corporation was headed by Mr. Rajapaksa himself.
The FCID filing a further report informed court that the suspect Namal Rajapaksa had dealt with a company named Boston and had given Rs. 15 million and another Rs.30 million through one Indika Karunajeewa to the Chairman of that company, Mr. Rohan Abey Iriyagolla.
According to the statements given by the chairman of the Boston Company, the given money was paid to Gowers Corporation and NR Consultants again, which are headed by Namal Rajapaksa, as payments for the services obtained by Boston.
The two transactions were found by the prosecution as offences that fell under the Money Laundering Act.
The others, Indika Prabath Karunajeewa, Pavithra Sujani Bogollagama, Nithya Senani Samaranayake, Sudarsha Bandara Ganegoda and Iresha Silva were named suspects under sections 102 and 113 of the Penal Code and section 3 of the Money Laundering Act.
Acceding to the prosecutions request, Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris issued an arrest warrant on second suspect Indika Karunajeewa, since the suspect was currently residing abroad, absconding the prosecution. The FCID also told court that the prosecution would file two cases separately over the alleged two transactions against the suspects.
Earlier, the VAC convenor lodging a complaint with FCID alleged that the suspect Namal Rajapaksa had obtain funds illegally to his two Companies (Gowers Corporation and NR Consultants) by engaging with various state contracts and providing coordinating services.
He complained that the suspect had purchased the Hello Corp Company’s shares from the ill-gotten funds he gained while serving as a parliamentarian. Further inquiry was postponed for September 1.