Attorney General Dappula de Livera PC has filed indictments in the Colombo High Court against former Foreign Ministry Monitoring MP Sajin de Vass Gunawardane on the charge of money laundering amounting to Rs.306.26 million.
Co-ordinating Officer to the Attorney General, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne told news media that the Attorney General filed indictments against Vass under section 3(1) (C ) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act No. 40 of 2011.
The Attorney General alleged that the former Parliamentarian has failed to explain how he earned a colossal income to make as deposits in several companies while functioning as a parliamentarian.
According to the indictments, CID investigation has revealed that Sajin de Vass Gunawaradane had owned group of companies under the name, COSMOS, which has 21 companies at the time he gave nominations to contest the parliamentary election in 2010. The Attorney General maintained that though the former parliamentarian had resigned from the directorship of all those companies and transferred his shares to his wife before he became a member of the 14th parliament, the evidence revealed that he has effectively run the full operation of these companies even after he became a parliamentarian.
The Attorney General alleged that Gunawaradane had made suspicious transactions using seven of the 21 companies.
The Attorney General further alleged that the investigations have revealed that former parliamentarian used to withdraw cash from the companies though he had not had any legal bearing to do so as he has rescinded his ownership and directorship of these companies.
The CID Investigation found that neither Sajin Vass Gunawaradane nor his wife in their own admission have such a known income comparable to the vast sums of money he has made as deposits in these companies.
The Attorney General further maintained that deficit between all of these deposits and his and his wife ‘s income including company drawings he has made illegally and has been identified as Rs.306.26 million.
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