Revealed: Sri Lankans among thos

Sri Lankans were among them -- royalty, actors, politicians, corporate executives, old wealth families, international outlaws and businessmen -- who had secret Swiss Bank accounts.

Their records at the HSBC Private Bank Suisse not only show their inner workings but provide a rare glimpse of the super secret Swiss banking industry. The documents, including those of some 40 Sri Lankans, was obtained by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) from the French newspaper Le Monde. Collaborative projects that followed with a team of journalists from 45 countries unearthed bank accounts maintained by criminals, traffickers, tax dodgers, politicians, businessmen and celebrities.

The ICIJ is a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in over 65 countries. They collaborate on in-depth stories. Membership in the organisation is peer recommended. Founded in 1997 by the respected American journalist Chuck Lewis, ICIJ was launched as a project of the Washington-based Centre for Public Integrity. Their style of watchdog journalism

ADDRESS focuses on issues that do not stop at national frontiers: cross-border crime, corruption, and the accountability of power. Backed by the Centre and its computer-assisted reporting specialists, public records experts, factcheckers and lawyers, ICIJ reporters and editors provide real-time resources and state-of-the-art tools and techniques to journalists around the world. The Sunday Times Consultant Editor Iqbal Athas is the only Sri Lankan member of the ICIJ.

The ICIJ said that among the many grim stories, at least one was ironic. People on the most wanted list of Interpol, the international police agency, such as diamond dealers Mozes Victor Konig and Kenneth Lee Akselrod, are among the HSBC account holders - and so is Elias Murr, who is President of the board of Interpol's Foundation for a Safer World, an organisation aimed at fighting terrorism and organised crime. Murr, who was a prominent businessman before entering politics, was interior minister of Lebanon in 2004 when an HSBC account owned by him was held through a company called Callorford Investments Limited. By 2006-2007, the account would contain US$ 42 million. Colombo Colombo Colombo Colombo Kandy Kandy Kandy Kandy Kandy Bandarawela Colombo Colombo Colombo Colombo Colombo Colombo Dehiwala-Colombo Dehiwala-Colombo Colombo Colombo Kopay (Jaffna)

(Two accounts) AMOUNTS REMAINING DURING 2006-2007 $10,668,094 $10,668,094 $6,564,952 $6,495,287 $1,989,370 $1,975,594 $1,975,319 $1,975,319 $1,975,319 $1,692,959 $1,384,149 $817,446 $646,243 $646,243 $500,961 $359,689 $139,459 $139,459 $121,225 $121,225 $53,624 *The name appears with a Sri Lankan address in the account under the name of Vescovi Alain NOTE: Where some amounts are referred twice, two persons have been named holding the same or separate accounts. There is also an instances where a person named is an attorney representing an account holder.

The secret files covering up to 2007 associated with more than 100,000 individual and legal entities from more than 200 nations. It's not illegal in most countries to maintain offshore accounts. Some who are named in the files may have had some connection to a Swiss bank account, such as a power of attorney, while not owning the money in the account or owning only a share of it. Being identified as an HSBC Private bank account is of itself no indication of any wrongdoing. However, in Sri Lanka, the permission to open a foreign bank account requires the approval of the Central Bank. The Exchange Control Act (Section 6 AA) states:

"(1) No person in, or resident in, Sri Lanka shall, except with the permission of the bank,

(a) open an account with any bank or institution doing any kind of banking business outside Sri Lanka (hereinafter referred to as a " foreign bank";

"(b) continue to maintain, or operate on, an account which has already been opened in any foreign bank; or "(c) close an account with any foreign bank. "(2) Where an account maintained by a person in, or resident in, Sri Lanka with any foreign bank is closed, such person shall not dispose of the funds to his credit at such foreign bank at the time of closing of such account, except in accordance with such directions as may from time to time be given to him by the Central Bank."

A high ranking official at the Central Bank said that the question of granting permission for secret offshore accounts, which are to avoid taxes, does not arise. "Such accounts are a ruse to dodge taxes," he said. As our front page story today reveals, the largest amount for the period 2006-2007 was in the name of the family of Edmund Wijesuriya Balasuriya. Together with his wife, daughter and three sons, their names are connected to accounts totalling over US$ 16 million or exactly $ 16,325,742. He is described in HSBC documents as "Director/Owner of a Shop of Games." According to a HSBC document, on October 6, 2005 Balasuriya reportedly met a Bank official in London where the HSBC headquarters is located. It has branches in 74 countries. The document notes "the conversation covered our ideas concerning the family structure and I mentioned that he might consider a Delaware Trust if they wish his sister to be brought into the structure..."

Here is a breakdown of the family accounts