Businessman Nimal Perera should face legal action in Sri Lanka over the Central Bank bond scam and alleged insider trading on the stock market, the convenor of the civil society group Purawesi Paliha Collective, Attorney-at-Law Sanjeewa Weerawickrama, said on Monday.
The call is a demand from a campaigning organisation, not a step taken by any investigating authority. No regulator, police unit or prosecutor has announced new proceedings against Perera.
The two grounds cited
Weerawickrama rested the argument on two existing documents rather than new allegations.
The SEC’s 2022 annual report. He said the Securities and Exchange Commission’s report for that year states that Perera, acting as an investor and stock market trader, engaged in insider dealing and breached Rule 12. He said Perera was fined Rs. 6.6 million over the matter.
The bond commission’s recommendation. He said the three-member Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed by then-President Maithripala Sirisena to investigate the Central Bank bond scam had recommended a detailed investigation into Treasury Bond transactions between Perera and his company and the Employees’ Provident Fund.
Taken together, the lawyer argued, those findings mean Perera should also face legal action domestically.
The Airbus reference
The Daily Mirror introduced Perera as a person “alleged to have given money to Namal Rajapaksa in connection with the Airbus deal.” The report does not set out that allegation further, name its source, or say whether it is the subject of any proceeding.
The SLPP parliamentarian is currently in remand custody in a separate matter.
What the report does not establish
The article carries one side only. It does not include a response from Perera or anyone acting for him, does not say whether the Rs. 6.6 million fine was paid or contested, and does not say what became of the bond commission’s recommendation in the years since it was made — whether any investigation into the EPF transactions was opened, closed or never begun.
Nor does it say why the issue is being raised now, or whether Purawesi Paliha has filed a complaint with any authority.
Perera has not been charged in connection with any of the matters described.
