Colombo Chief Magistrate Prasanna Alwis yesterday issued orders to the Land Registrar’s office prohibiting the transfer or sale of properties including spacious apartments and luxury hotels worth over Rs. 630 million owned by Sampath Sandaruwan, a member of the Board of Directors of the private company Onmax DT, accused of engaging in illegal pyramid transactions.
The Magistrate issued these orders to the Land Registrar’s offices of Matara, Kalutara, Hambantota and Kadawata relating to 20 properties.
After the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had received information that the ownership of eight lands belonging to the suspect were transferred to his wife and 12 lands to his friend on a single day, the court issued orders prohibiting either the sale or transfer of the properties.
The CID informed the court that the bank account records reveal that there is an amount of Rs. 790 million in the accounts banned by the Central Bank.
According to the bank accounts details of the Board of Directors, information has been revealed that Saranga Jayanath’s bank account has Rs. 180 million and director Gayashan’s bank account has Rs. 20 million, Rs. 550 million in 16 bank accounts of Sampath Sandaruwan, Rs. 20 million in the bank account of Athula Indika and Rs. 110 million in Dhananjaya Jayanath’s bank account. The officials also informed that the investigation called Block Chain Analysis was conducted together with the Central Bank’s Finance Unit, where it was revealed that the last account (the wallet) to which this money flows is credited to the account of a Sri Lankan person, not an Australian.
The CID stated that this company has earned US$ 110 million from illegal pyramid deals. The court has issued orders banning six directors of the company from travelling abroad.