Perpetual Treasuries Paid Millions To Arjuna Mahendran And Sujeewa Senasinghe

JUNE 7, 2018

Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) the outfit run by Arjun Aloysius gave former Central Bank Governor and Aloysius’ father-in-law Arjuna Mahendran a total of Rs 3.2 million, the Attorney General’s Department revealed at the Chief Magistrate’s Court, Colombo, today. Apparently the money had been given in three separate cheques.

Mahendran

It is not clear why such a payment was made, although Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Yasantha Kodagoda told court that Mahendran might have used the three cheques to settle off the bill of his unlimited credit card.

PTL was the principal beneficiary of the controversial Central Bank Bond Issues in 2015 and 2016. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the time defended Mahendran, the man he hand-picked for the Governor’s post.

Meanwhile, a B report filed in Court today by the Attorney General’s Department in relation to the bond scam revealed that State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe had received three cheques of Rs.1 million each in 2015 and 2016 from W.M. Mendis & Company Ltd., a subsidiary of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd.

Senasinghe was also very vocal in claiming that there was no wrongdoing in the relevant transactions. When mobile phone records showed that he had had dozens of conversations with Aloysius, Senasinghe pleaded that this was to obtain information for a book he was wring on the subject. However it was revealed that many of the calls were made after he had published the said book.

Senasinghe

The three cheques, received in 2015 and 2016 had been cashed by members of Senasighe’s security detail.

Senasinghe has stated that he was unaware that his election campaign teams had received money from W.M. Mendis & Co Ltd., a business that Aloysius acquired after he made a billions through the bond scam. He stated ‘had I known (that the contribution was from W.M. Mendis and Co Ltd) I would not have allowed the teams handling campaign donations to accept it.’

Senasinghe, however, has not explained why anyone would contributed ‘campaign donations’ in 2016, a year in which there were no elections.

Dayasiri

Meanwhile Kodagoda also informed court that the CID would obtain a statement from Senasinghe as well as UPFA MP Dayasiri Jayasekararegarding the cheque of Rs.1 million he is alleged to have received in 2015 from Walt & Row Associates, a PTL-related Group Company. Jayasekera admitted that he had indeed received this amount but said that he did not know where the donation had come from.

Read More