Forensic Audit reveals conflict of interest between Mahendran and Aloysious's company, during bond transactions

Colombo (News 1st): The Forensic Audit Report of the Central Bank Bond scam that has been tabled in Parliament revealed a potential conflict of interest of Arjuna Mahendran, the then governor of the Central Bank who headed the monetary authority during the controversial Bond Scam. The forensic audit which comprises five volumes has been presented without the annexes and exhibits. The forensic audit report says, during the review four instances were noted where Kasun Palisena, the CEO of PTL who is on bail, had shared confidential information to the official email ID of Arjuna Mahendran, [email protected]. Following the controversial bond scams that took place in 2015 and 2016 an email that was sent by Kasun Palisena has been noted in the report. It reads:

“An email of 4th April 2016 at 17.21 was noted wherein Kasun Palisena wrote to Arjuna Mahendran that all transactions are settled and cleared. He also apologized for some difficulties caused for Arjuna Mahendran because of him”

The report also identifies an abnormal success rate of 96% for Perpetual Treasuries Limited and verbiage mentioned in the email indicates that Arjuna Mahendran potentially shared some unpublished price sensitive information with Kasun Palisena of PTL and he acknowledged the assistance of Arjuna Mahendran vide subject email. The said email communications between Arjuna Mahendran and Kasun Palisena indicated that Arjuna Mahendran was in regular touch with key managerial personnel of PTL for matters not related to the CBSL. Meanwhile, the forensic audit also points out the possible conflicts of interest during Ajith Nivard Cabraal's time at the Central Bank during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime as Cabraal's family members were directors of Primary Dealer companies as well as banks under the supervision of CBSL. It notes, Siromi Noel Wickramasinghe, sister of Ajith Nivard Cabraal was associated with the holding company of PTL, Perpetual Capital Holdings (Private) Limited as a director from 23 December 2013 till 9 March 2015. It was noted that Siromi Noel Wickramasinghe was sharing key managerial positions at the holding company of PTL and previous organization along with Arjun Aloysius. In addition, the report says Shibani Renuka Thambiayah, niece of Ajith Nivard Cabraal associated with Renuka Group where PTL had invested and during public domain search, as per the media article dated 19 March 2017 in the Sunday Times, Perpetual Asset Management (Pvt) Limited, which was the immediate Holding Company of Perpetual Treasuries Limited made substantial investments in “Renuka Group of Companies” in which Ajith Nivard Cabraal had close family connections.