Sophisticated Wealth Concealment By Cj

Finance and banking assessors see fraudulent, corrupt pattern:

With the Parliamentary Select Committee hearings on the impeachment of the Chief Justice due today, independent observers have expressed shock and dismay over the manner in which some of her financial dealings have been manipulated, with a view to hiding her true financial worth from assessors.

Financial regulators for example would have been put off by the fact that on repeated occasions over several years (see details on page 5) there was zero balance in her accounts on significant dates such as March 1 or December 1.

However, as soon as the dates passed, these accounts were replenished with their regular millions.

Observers say that this was a clever device to evade wealth and tax assessors, and was certainly tantamount to fraudulent concealment of monies to evade full declaration of finances, as is the expectation in her position as Chief Justice.

For example, during the year 2007/2008, Dr Bandaranayake maintained an account in an active manner with the National Development Bank with four debits to the value of Rs 5,524,875.25 and eight credits to the value of Rs 5,524,875.25 being transacted through the account. By February 8, 2008, Rs 674,323.52 was lying to the credit of the account. On that date, the entire amount is withdrawn, thus reducing the balance to zero.

The manner in which such accounts have been operated is significant in that it is deliberate, and consistent. Such deliberate and consistent manipulation points to a sophisticated plan of deliberate concealment of net wealth, our banking and finance sources say.