Golden Key collapse: Lalith K and others finally indicted on 91 charges

By Susitha R. Fernando and Farook Thajudeen

Former Ceylinco Chairman Lalith Kotelawala and the Golden Key Credit Card Company (GKCCC) Board of Directors were on Friday indicted in the Colombo High Court on charges of criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

The Attorney General has framed charges against Kotelawala and others under the Penal Code and Finance Companies Act for the offences they had committed from March 1999 to December 2008.

Kotelawala and the GKCCC Board of Directors were charged with conspiring to misappropriate in connivance with the late Nallanthuwan, one of the suspects in the magisterial inquiry into the alleged misappropriation of deposits worth Rs.26 billion belonging to the GKCC. Nallanthuwan died during the magisterial inquiry.

The indictment is connected to the unlawful financial activities of GKCCC. GKCCC Chief Executive Director Khavan Perera and Directors Saradha Sumanasekara, Suramya Karunanayake, Niranjan Fernando, Lalith Kotelawala, Sicille Kotelawala, Punyashantha Ranatunga and an Inland Revenue Department official W. R. Dharmasiri were indicted on 91 charges.

Among the charges were the violating of the Finance Companies Act and conspiring and aiding and abetting to do so.

According to the indictment the GKCC Board of Directors and Ceylinco Consolidated Chairman Lalith Kotelawala had misappropriated funds by investing in other companies and other businesses funds amounting to more than four billion rupees that were deposited in the company from 2002 to 2008. The amount of misappropriated funds that were deposited in the GKCC were Rs.189,002,798 in 2002, Rs.16,886,465 in 2003, Rs.222,378, 465 in 2004, Rs.956,007,858 in 2005, Rs.1165, 273, 809 in 2006, Rs.912,111,186 in 2007 and Rs.592, 317, 916 in 2008.

The AG has listed 778 witnesses, and 82 documents are to be produced as evidence.