Golden Key swindlers will be brought to book - Minister

Uditha Kumarasinghe Irangika Range and Sandasen Marasinghe

Finance and State Revenue Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told Parliament yesterday the Government will take legal action against all those responsible for irregularities at the Golden Key Credit Card Company under the existing laws of the country.

He further said the Golden Key Credit Card Company has not been registered under the Central Bank (CB).

"Therefore, activities of the company were not monitored by the CB," he pointed out. But the Government will never hesitate to intervene to preempt any financial crisis at any time in the country.

"Steps have already been taken by the CB to stabilise the financial system in the country," he noted.

The CB has published the names of 27 unregistered financial institutions in newspapers to alert the public.

Meanwhile, the CB has conducted a full scale investigation against 46 financial institutions which have been accepting deposits from the public illegally.

Finally, only one company out of these 46 institutions was registered under the CB while certain institutions agreed to refund the money to the depositors under the supervision of the CB.

Accordingly, the CB has filed Court cases against 12 illegal financial institutions while 19 names of parties have been published through the newspapers to make the public aware.

The Minister was responding to a special statement made by JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake.