A RAY OF HOPE FOR GOLDEN KEY DEPOSITORS

Lakshman I.Keerthisinghe LLB, LLM. MPhil Attorney-at-Law

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged and with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you,

Bible – Mathew (judgement)

On March 4, 2013 The Supreme Court ordered that a Special Task Force be set up to ascertain the assets of the Golden Key Credit Card Company’s former Board of Directors including its Chairman Lalith Kotelawala. The bench was headed by His Lordship Mohan Peiris Chief Justice of Sri Lanka and comprised Their Lordships Justices P. A. Ratnayake and Priyasath Dep. This order was made order consequent to accepting a plan submitted by the Central Bank to repay the Golden Key Credit Card Company depositors on behalf of the Monetary Board according to the SC order of March 4.

Protesting Golden Key depositors. File photo

The Task Force to ascertain the assets of the former GKCC Board of Directors will comprise of the following:

1. A senior police officer in the rank of DIG appointed by the IGP will act as the chairman.

2. Two senior officers with knowledge of financial intelligence named by the Central Bank Governor

3. An Army intelligence officer named by the Secretary Defence.

4. A senior State Counsel named by the Attorney General

5. A senior officer named by the UDA

The Task Force has to identify the assets sold or signed as gifts by the nine directors of the company six months prior to the collapse of the Golden Key Credit Company. The Task Force is to ascertain the assets of the Directors and submit report to Court once in every three months.

The plan states that a new Board of Directors shall be appointed to takes control of the GKC Company Ltd with a mandate to operate its business and safeguard and recover all its assets.

The Court also ordered that the Committee of Chartered Accountants appointed earlier to ascertain the assets of the company be discontinued and all documents in their possession be handed over to the new Board of Directors. The Honourable Chief Justice commended the work done by the Committee of Chartered Accountants headed by Professor Lakkshman Watawala.

Deposit holders

It was stated that until the value of the balances securing depositors outstanding of up Rs.300,000 is settled, all security deposit holders shall be entitled to receive an equal distribution of their respective balances.

The Court also directed the Central Bank to expeditiously realise the personal assets including the shares belonging to the Key Directors of the Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd., since they had violated Court bail conditions, stipulated by the Supreme Court and High Court orders, whereby they agreed to contribute their personal assets towards the settlement of the security deposit balances.

The plan states that a new Board of Directors shall be appointed to takes control of the GKC Company Ltd with a mandate to operate its business and safeguard and recover all its assets. It said until the value of the balance securing depositors outstanding of up Rs.300,000 is settled, all security deposit holders shall be entitled to receive an equal distribution of their respective balances.

The Supreme Court also ordered that a new Board of Directors be appointed to the Golden Key Credit Card Company. The new Board of Directors of the Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd would be headed by Priyantha Fernando (former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank). There was no finality in the appointment of the other Directors as the Central Bank had been given the choice to name a lawyer, a chartered accountant, a businessman and a depositor in addition to another two persons to be named by the two Depositors’ Associations.

Hapless pleas

The depositors were of the view that persons who already had deposits in the failed Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd should not be nominated as Directors for the vacancies of a lawyer, a chartered accountant and a businessman as already there are three depositors to be nominated to a Board comprising of six members although such names had been suggested as such professionals should have the capacity to act independently without being motivated by self-interest,which will result in bias.

One depositor cried out that Kotelawala was worse than Prabakaran and that he had been ruined as a thousand lakhs deposited by him had been defrauded.

The Honourable Chief Justice gave a fair hearing to all the persons present in Court who requested to be heard and was visibly moved by the hapless pleas of the depositors and promised them that justice will be delivered and that His Lordship would commence making all the necessary orders to facilitate the repayment process by the next morning itself.

There were other connected petitions on the same matter that have to be heard along with the one petition taken up in the interests of case management but all the petitioners as well as all the depositors would be dealt with in an equitable manner by the Supreme Court.

The above orders came as a ray of hope to the hapless depositors expecting to spend their new year in the hope of gaining some sort of relief quickly. It is indeed laudable that within two sittings after the new bench headed by His Lordship the Chief Justice took over the Golden Key Case that the Court was able to grant a ray of hope to the hapless depositors some of whom had committed suicide due to the laws inordinate delays for over three years in failing to grant an effective comprehensive repayment plan acceptable to all parties in this matter.

One depositor surmised that Kotelawala had transferred the depositors' money abroad through the Ceylinco Fast Cash outlets by obtaining foreign exchange from Sri Lankans living abroad and then paying off the relatives in Sri Lanka using the depositors' money, which he said ought to be investigated by the Exchange Control Department as this would have resulted in a massive exchange loss to Sri Lanka.

Their doubts about the suppression of the real value of the assets owned by the former Directors who had drawn princely salaries of over a million rupees per month and had miserably failed in their duties to safeguard the interests of the Company were alleviated by the appointment of the Task Force. The Honourable Chief Justice informed the Counsel who appeared for the Directors that they should be conscious of this matter.

In conclusion let all Sri Lankans hope and pray that this repayment scheme would be carried out as stipulated and funds collected to alleviate the suffering of the depositors and their families most of whom have deposited their life savings in this fraudulent Company resulting in a fraud that has been described as the largest fraud in the history of South East Asia.