There is much speculation that the Attorney General’s Department is shielding certain top officials attached to sports bodies by delaying its submission in proceeding with filed cases of fraud and instead are going after small fish, such as former Sri Lankan Cricketer Sachithra Senanayake, who is now retired.
Two such incidents of the so-called big fish cases that have been shelved for years have now come to light, especially as their files continue to gather dust.
The first case is related to Maxwell De Silva the Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, with the second being related to Rienzie Edwards, the former President of the Royal Turf Club, who was embroiled in a money laundering case in 2015.
The NOCSL Sec. Gen De Silva’s case is where he is alleged to have pocketed US $ 10,000 from the Ministry of Sports of Sri Lanka for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, despite the NOCSL receiving over US $ 100,000 from the IOC for the athletes’ expenses.
The NOCSL Sec.General De Silva had subsequently paid the sum back to the Ministry of Sports several years later only after an audit report had brought it to light.
A case relating to this alleged fraud was filed at the Attorney General’s Department and was pending an opinion to proceed.
It is a known fact that misappropriation of government funds is a non-bailable offense.
Reliable sources blurted that the maintenance of the NOCSL accounts had been haphazardly done in the past leading especially upto the year 2018.
According to reliable sources, the NOCSL had obtained the services of Lalith Vitharana, a well-known qualified Chartered Accountant as Chairman Finance who had used his expertise to balance the accounts especially between the periods 2013 to 2018. It is public knowledge that both Lalith Vitharana and Maxwell De Silva share a very close bond as working professionals.
Meanwhile in the second cold case, Rienzie Mahesh Kumara Edwards the owner of Royal Turf Club and his wife Purni Edwards were investigated by the FCID under the prevention of the money laundering act 5 of 2006 and its provisions. They were summoned, grilled, passports impounded and a case filed at the Chief Magistrates Court in Colombo bearing case number B34119/01/15 . This expose which was also reported by a website named Colombo Telegraph went on to state that the presiding judge Gehan Pilapitiya had ordered the case file to be sent to the Attorney General’s Department pending his opinion to proceed. It is reported that that file also continues to still lay dormant.
Subsequently, Rienzie Edwards along with five others were also indicted by the US Attorney’s office in December 2016 for defrauding victims to the tune of US dollars 50 million. The indictment stated that an unspecified amount of the US $ 50 million was wired to banks in Sri Lanka.
Whilst this incident may be of a personal nature, it is believed that the high level of contacts he maintains with top brass government officials is the reason he has received protection so far.
Rienzie Edwards was seen publicly in the past even attending functions at the Temple Trees with former Ministers Karu Jayasuriya and Navin Dissanayake, when the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister during the former Yahapalanaya Government.
His close affiliations to former Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara and in the recent past with current Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage is also a publicly known fact.
Meanwhile the Attorney General’s Department has directed the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Ministry of Sports to proceed in pressing criminal charges against former Sri Lankan cricketer Sachithra Senanayake.
The former T20 World Cup-winning cricketer’s alleged crime is where he was reported to have approached and enticed two cricketers participating in the first edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) in 2020.
This latest development transpired after the ICC’s (International Cricket Council) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) General Manager Alex Marshall had held discussions with Sri Lanka Cricket officials and also representatives of the AG’s Department recently.
He had apparently approached these cricketers over the phone whilst he was in Dubai.
Sachithra Senanayake has continued to vehemently deny these such claims.
The SIU meanwhile complained that Senanayake had provided them with two mobile phones that did not belong to him, after he was asked to surrender his mobile devices to them during the investigation.
In a somewhat similar incident,Sri Lankan Cricketer and the former ‘Master Blaster’ Sanath Jayasuriya had also opted to refrain from providing his mobile phones to the ICC’s Anti Corruption Unit when he was also investigated regarding match fixing allegations in the past.
Jayasuirya opted to instead accept the two year ban relating to his match fixing charge, rather than providing the ICC Anti Corruption Unit’s investigative officials his mobile phones during the investigation.
Today with his ban over, Sanath Jayasuriya continues to hold multiple positions appointed by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Sports and is also appointed as the Chairman Technical Advisory Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket.
This is besides being appointed as the Director Cricket attached to the T20 franchise cricket team Dambulla Aura that is competing in the 4th edition of the Lanka Premier League.
