Former National Savings Bank (NSB) Chairman Pradeep Kariyawasam, the husband of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was yesterday sentenced to five-year-suspended sentence by the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court.
Apart from the suspended sentence, Kariyawasam was ordered to pay a fine of Rs.300,000 by Chief Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake.
The accused was found guilty on four counts filed by the Commission to Investigate into Allegations of Bribery or Corruption for causing a monetary loss of Rs.391 million to the government by unlawful purchases of shares of ‘The Finance Company’.
The former Chairman is also accused of having informed The Finance Company that the Bank would buy the relevant shares of The Finance Company by unlawfully making use of his official position as the Chairman of the bank.
He also alleged that the former Chairman had made use of his official position to purchase the shares intentionally to cause monetary loss to the government by purchasing 7,863,362 shares of the Finance Company.
It was also alleged that the Chairman had impressed on the management of The Finance Company to appoint Shan Chandrasekeran Shanmugam to the Director Board of The Finance Company by making use of his official position as the NSB Chairman.
The Bribery Commission alleged that former NSB Chairman had committed an act punishable under Section 70 of the Bribery act.
The case filed by the Commission before Colombo Chief Magistrate accused the former NSB Chairman of causing monetary losses to the government amounting Rs.391 million unlawfully transacting with The Finance Company to purchase shares.