MiG Deal: Rajapaksas Paid US$ 10 Million To A Ghost Company: “No Company Called Bellimissa” – Interpol Confirmed

May 11, 2015

BInterpol Headquarters confirmed that there was no company called Bellimissa Holdings Limited in the United Kingdom. When the MiG deal fell into media spotlight in December 2006, it was highlighted that so-called government-government deal involved payment to a mysterious third party, Bellimissa Holdings, UK. Bellimissa was in fact a ghost company that did not exist in any form in the UK. Even London address it had provided to the Defence Ministry was false.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Confirming the media reports, last week, the Interpol Headquarters has reported to the the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) that there was no company called Bellimissa Holdings Limited in the UK.

The controversial MiG 27 deal was first revealed by Sunday Times Defence Correspondent and Senior Journalist Iqbal Athas in December 2006 and further exposed in The Sunday Leader then edited by murdered Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.

It was revealed in the front page report of The Sunday Times dated 03.12.2006 that four MiG 27s purchased in 2006 had been on the market for several years. They had lain in disuse since 1991 and were repaired by Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant before being sold to Sri Lanka. In fact, in 2000, three of these planes had been rejected by SLAF on two different occasions.

Firstly on May 25, 2000, when the SLAF purchased four MiG 27 aircrafts at US$ 1.5 million each, and next on October 24, 2000 when two more MiG 27 aircraft were purchased for US$ 1.6 million each. Thus, it appears that these very same MiG 27 aircraft had earlier been rejected by the SLAF in 2000 were purchased in 2006 at a cost of US$ 2.462 million each.

On the basis of The Sunday Times news report on March 11, 2007 Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi, two key minsters who broke away from the Rajapaksa government made complaint to the Bribery Commission alleging corruption part of the Presiden’ts brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Read More