Samarasinghe makes startling revelations on Rajapaksa wealth overseas

Colombo (News1st) -  Convenor of the Voice Against Corruption Wasantha Samarasinghe convened a media briefing today and made some startling revelations regarding financial fraud. According to Samarasinghe in December 2016 the head of the FCID traveled to Hong Kong to gather information into a financial fraud where US$ 22mn (approximately Rs 3,740mn) had been transferred out of Sri Lanka and into an account at HSBC. Details had been gathered regarding the company that currently holds this money and the directors of this company. He elaborated that this money was commissions taken by the Rajapaksa family for deals that they had struck during their tenure in power. Wasantha went onto note that he has details on the $7.6mn which was given to the Rajapaksa family by a Chinese company, which was exposed by the New York Times, as well as the bank account details related to these transactions and proof showing their links back to the Rajapaksa family. Reverting back to the account at the HSBC bank, Samarasinghe showed the media what he claimed was a document containing the monies in the said account and noted that these details were brought to the country by Senior DIG Ravi Vaidyalankara of the FCID. The Convenor of the Voice against corruption stated that it has been 2 years since this information was brought back to the country and added that they are yet to see any action being taken based on the intelligence collected by the police. As such Wasantha Samarasinghe noted that they are prepared to reveal the details of the company that had been used to funnel this money out of the country. According to Samarasinghe the company Red Routh Investment, which has an account in the British Virgin Island. He revealed that the company has 3 directors, 2 Chinese and one Sri Lankan. This is the same person that accompanies Ranil Wickremesinghe to temple trees when Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the election back in 2015. This is only the tip of the iceberg as Samarasinghe revealed more details of bank accounts which are allegedly linked to the Rajapaksa family. One of them was an account opened under a company named World Diamond Service to which funds had been transferred to from the account of  Red Routh Investment, this account has a balance of $32,000 at present. Samarasinghe went onto to note that the account under the name Sinscreeen enterprises has a further $ 43,900 while the account under Sinscreeen enterprises group has a further $ 7,140. That's not all, the account of Hafza traders had been used to transfer out money to other HSBC accounts in the British Virgin Islands before the account was closed on the 25th of December 2015. The Convenor of the Voice against Corruption charges that the President, PM, IGP and the Minister in Charge of the police were aware of these details after it was brought down to the country. He noted that officials even met with several US reps to gain guidance on the future course of action that should be followed, sue the company in question in a Hong Kong court to repatriate the money, yet no action is being taken to recover this money. Samarasinghe questioned why investigations into these frauds are being delayed? Wasantha Samarasinghe noted that the people should be informed as to why the matters are being swept under the carpet adding that the people have a right to know whether this money belonged to Basil Rajapaksa or any other Rajapaksa family member. He also noted that such actions should be investigated and not be used a political leverage.