Sri Lanka to ask Singapore to extradite ex-central bank chief
Sri Lanka will request the extradition of an ex-central bank chief in relation to a $74 million insider trading scam, the attorney-general said Monday, months after Colombo accused Singapore of sheltering him.
Arjuna Mahendran, a Singapore national of Sri Lankan origin, was accused in 2015 of passing sensitive information to his bond-dealer son-in-law to make millions in undue profits.
“Documents amounting to 21,000 pages were submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence today to be lodged with Singapore,” the attorney-general’s spokeswoman Nishara Jayaratne said.
She said Mahendran had been indicted in June for causing losses of more than $11 million to the state.
Mahendran and his son-in-law are accused of manipulating bond auctions in 2015 and 2016.
He was named a key suspect in the scam in February last year and fled abroad, failing to appear in court to respond to charges.
A damning presidential report into the scandal also accused Mahendran of insider trading and recommended the state recover its losses from the pair.
The country’s central bank has launched a forensic audit to determine whether there was further insider trading during Mahendran’s tenure between January 2015 and June 2016.
Mahendran is believed to be in Singapore and in March, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena accused the island state’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of sheltering him.
But Singapore insisted that Colombo’s request to send back Mahendran was incomplete.
Sri Lanka’s chief prosecutor said authorities had by Monday completed the legal requirements to formally lodge an extradition request with Singapore.
The allegations deepened acrimony between Sirisena and his coalition partner Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who handpicked Mahendran to head the central bank.
(AFP)
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Sri Lanka can ask,
In fact the King, who claims to have a ‘backbone’, went across to Singapore and claims to have urged the Singapore PM on a one-to-one basis to extradite Mahendram.
Nothing happened.
You know why?
Because the claim for extradition has no valid legal basis. We, the people of Sri Lanka and the Nation of Sri Lanka have been made to look stupid in the eyes of Singapore because of the stupidity of our King.
Now the King has planted his follower as the AG and that idiot is pursuing not proper legal principles but the King’s commands.
This is a millennial viewpoint.
Why did our PM select a Singapore national and not a Sri Lankan?
Surely there are appropriately qualified Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka.
His choice of friend should have been challenged.
He must be held accountable for his rationale and selection.
Poor judgement has cost us dearly!
Where is the Forensic Audit of Central Bank books promised by Papa Coomarasamy?
Are corrupt officials occupying high chairs in the CB who committed this fraud with Perpetual, as a continuation of similar practices in the R Family / Cabraal days, frustrating the Forensic Audit?
The former CB Boss Arjuna M, attempted to clean up the CB; he was shown the door.
Papa Commarasamy is backbone-less and in in the strangle-hold of corrupt CB top officials.
I do not think it will succeed for whether there was a bond scam or not is a big mathematical question and it cannot be judged by Pcol or COPE or by Auditor General . Please contact the 7 mathematical Professors of Sri Lanka they will confirm it