The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has issued a public warning declaring that Crosslink Investment (Pvt) Ltd and Crosslink Holdings (Private) Limited ran unauthorised deposit schemes, and has ordered both to stop all finance business immediately.
Following an investigation under the Finance Business Act No. 42 of 2011, the regulator determined that Crosslink Investment illegally took deposits from the public between April 2020 and January 2022, EconomyNext reported.
The company and its sister firm Crosslink Holdings then continued collecting public funds through August 2022, the Central Bank found, using loan agreements and fixed deposit contracts that masked what the money was actually being taken as.
Six named
The Central Bank identified six directors and managers tied to the operations: Wanasinghe Mudiyanselage Jaliya Kamal Wanasinghe, Wanasinghe Mudiyanselage Sanjaya Kamal Wanasinghe, Wanasinghe Mudiyanselage Udara Kamal Wanasinghe and Kirage Premalatha as directors, alongside Rajapakshage Sachini Madhukala Rajapaksha, director of operations, and Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anjula Sandeepani Dissanayake, finance manager.
Accepting deposits from the public in Sri Lanka requires authorisation from the Central Bank. Naming individuals in a public warning is the regulator’s standard mechanism for putting depositors and counterparties on notice that a business is operating outside that perimeter.
A recurring enforcement line
The warning is the latest in a run of Central Bank actions against unlicensed deposit-taking. The regulator ordered Singhe Capital Investment to halt unauthorised deposit-taking in June, issued a deposit-taking order in Dambulla in September, and in July warned the public over illegal plantation investment schemes and the media carrying their advertising.
Not reported
The filing does not state how much money was collected, how many depositors were affected, or whether any of it has been recovered. It does not say whether the matter has been referred for prosecution, whether assets have been frozen, or what recourse depositors have. No verified newsroom other than EconomyNext had published an account of this warning at the time of writing, and this desk could not reach the Central Bank’s own notice to confirm its wording directly.
