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Wednesday, 27 May 2015 01:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday assured that he would leave no room for distorting or making undue advantage in settling the Golden Key depositors’ issue.
The Minister said Golden Key Directors, inclu
ding Lalith Kotelawala, had made an appeal for assets to the Supreme Court.
“We will vehemently oppose such things. They have not answered the depositors and it is my duty to ensure that the depositors are paid.”
He added: “There is one lady who is also trying to distort and take undue advantage. Such action will have to be reported because one person cannot jeopardise 9,000 people’s deposits. I will not allow that to happen.”
Clarifying why he asked for a withdrawal of all 29 court cases the depositors had filed against Golden Key and its Directors, he explained: “They have taken the Central Bank to task. Why should they have a case against the Central Bank when we are the ones who are trying to help them to get their money? I cannot be having a problem on my hands and paying out. Therefore I said ‘come clean, we will help you clean’.”
“We have a fiduciary responsibility as the Central Bank to intervene and ensure the problem is solved. Thus, we cannot allow something to go on in another case when the innocent depositors are not paid,” he added.
He revealed that Golden Key assets were being used by one person who was running a hotel and getting the revenue.
“There are proven receipts. This type of nonsense cannot go on. I am looking at the depositor and not one or two people who are fraudulently running the place at the moment,” he noted.
The Minister assured all depositors would be paid in cash and not by any other means such as shares, guaranteeing that they would “walk the talk”.
“Our intention is not to provide a temporary solution to the depositors, but to find ways and means to pay the total amount of monies that these innocent depositors lost. We will go after every single conceivable asset known and unknown to you all and known to us.
“Golden Key depositors had many issues, dragging for many years. We have now given the opportunity to solve this issue in a very reasonable manner. No sooner they withdraw the cases, we will ensure that we pay within one month or start paying even before that,” he added.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday charged that former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal was responsible for the downfall of Golden Key, charging that Cabraal had not resolved the matter during his tenure. “Nivard Cabraal must come in. He was a part of the entire group’s collapse and he never ensured that there was a reselection plan; he only allowed cronies to run. Those assets that were there were free to some of that people he nominated,” Karunanayake added.
