Conspiracy behinds infamous Nalaka Godahewa appointment

Colombo (News1st): Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, a controversial figure involved with various alleged malfeasance was appointed as the chairman of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation on Wednesday (November 21). This appointment comes at a time when he is out on bail over financial fraud allegations. It is a known fact that several financial misappropriations such as steep increases in stock prices of certain corporations through pump and dump scams occurred during his tenure as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka. In an article published in the Daily Mirror on the 27th of August 2017, Waskaduwa beach resort, a subsidiary of Citrus Leisure had allegations leveled against it for illegal manipulation in the stock market. Dr Godahewa was the 10th and 16th largest shareholder of this corporation at the time. He is also the 7th largest shareholder of yet another controversial company, which is the Colombo Land and Development Company. The Daily Mirror article goes on to note that Dr Godahewa was the Chairman of Diwesa finance, which Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Amunugama Fernando are affiliated to. Both Dilith Jayweera and Varuni Amunugama Fernando serve on the board of Citrus Leisure. Allegations have been leveled against Dr Godahewa that he acted as middleman to elicit money from the Krrish square project for a member of the Rajapaksa family. Further, he was also involved in the disputed deal which saw 29% of Lanka Hospitals PLC being sold. Following the toppling of the Rajapaksa regime in 2015, a probe was launched to look into financial misappropriations committed by him at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The allegation against him was releasing funds which were allocated for a programme implemented to promote investing in the stock market among youth, and diverting to a project with the involvement of Namal Rajapaksa. Yet another appointment which bears a striking similarity to Nalaka Godahewa's appointment took place recently, that is, Kapila Chandrasena, who has many allegations leveled against him, being appointed the Chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines. However, Kapila Chandrasena was forced to resign from his position, following a mass outcry from the general public.