The ‘Stock Market Mafia’ Is Back
By Dinouk Colombage
Tilak Karunaratne is the second consecutive SEC chairman to resign due to political pressure in nine months
Investor confidence in the market, already at a low ebb, is expected to nose dive following the forced resignation of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tilak Karunaratne, as small investors fear another round of market manipulation by an influential group of high value investors dubbed the ‘Stock Market Mafia’.
Karunaratne, a highly respected businessman and one time politician is the second head of the SEC to be forced to resign within nine months.
His crime is that he was taking steps to clean up the share market of manipulators and speeding up investigations into various market manipulations by members of the ‘Mafia’.
Another member of the commission, Sanjay Kulatunga who backed Karunaratne’s efforts to clean up the market also resigned on Friday.
Indrani Sugathadasa, a highly respected public servant with an unblemished record of integrity was forced to reign as head of the SEC on December 01, 2011. The power of the ‘Mafia’ is evident from the fact that she is the wife of Presidential Secretary, Lalith Weeratunga.
Karunaratne is also a long time personal friend of President Rajapaksa and was persuaded by the President himself to take up the post.
Thousands of small investors were stuck with worthless shares when the ‘Mafia’ artificially inflated share prices of ‘junk’ shares and then sold out in most cases to government institutions making huge profits in a scam called ‘Pump and Dump.’
Nahil Jayawardena, an investor in the stock market, said that he was considering pulling out of the market with the resignation of Karunaratne.
“His resignation is a signal that the stock market is being controlled by a few individuals. Karunaratne launched investigations into questionable deals and came under pressure for doing so. What protection is there for those who are not big players in the market,” he said.
Jayawardena’s fears appear widespread with numerous other investors expressing similar doubts. Suhith Jayamanne said that he had already sold some of his stocks in the market. “It may be considered panic selling but the market has been down for several months and this will not improve investor confidence.”
He said that his decision to sell was not based purely on Karunaratne’s resignation. “The market has been down for several months. The government tells investors to remain calm and that foreign investment is arriving. We have not seen any of that, and with the SEC head’s resignation it is unlikely that such investment will arrive. This is the second consecutive SEC chairman to resign over pressure from unnamed parties, who is really controlling the market,” he observed.
Aritha Wickramanayake, the first Director General of the SEC, said that he was appalled by the resignation of Karunaratne. “This is just another sign of the market being controlled by a few individuals.
In my opinion the chairman had been doing a good job. Like anyone else he did make mistakes, but he showed that he was willing to make the tough decisions which would benefit the market.” Wickramanayake questioned who would now take over the post. “Two SEC Chairmen have resigned in the space of eight months. You must wonder what decent person will be willing to take up the post. In my opinion the only type of person who can survive in the job will be someone who will turn a blind eye to the illegal activities of certain investors,” he said.
The former Director general added that this resignation will only serve to damage investor confidence in the market.
“For the stock market to recover after the last crash it would take a number of months. Instead some investors believed it could be done overnight. These are the same people who helped pump up the market with false prices, and who have got rid of Karunaratne because he was looking to expose them,” he said.
Wickramanayake was sceptical about the future of the market, saying that rebuilding its credibility was the only way to go. “When a SEC Chairman is forced to resign because of political pressure, investors will question why. When they see he was looking to increase investigations in the stock market they will then fear for their own financial security. Sri Lanka’s stock market credibility has suffered a serve blow with his resignation,” he said.
However, some stockbrokers have chosen to take a more optimistic approach. A stockbroker employed by Bartleet-Trans Capital, on the condition of anonymity, explained that they were confident the market would not be affected by Karunaratne’s resignation. “The resignation of a single person will not have a great impact on investor confidence. During his tenure the market remained the same, so I do not believe that it will make any grave difference,” the broker said.
I have wondered what this man Thilak Karunaratne new about Stock Market. All he knew in his life was creating ethnic hatred. He exactly knew what he was walking in to although suffering from memory lose. What we heard was he was asked to go home. What a geat finance minister we have, the man didnt even pass math in his O/L. Viva Sino-Lanka.
Your judgement of people is just like the judgements of king kekille alright. I also don’t admire Thilak Karunaratne’s politics but a lot of honest people admired his short stint as head of SEC. (read what Aritha said also).
Just because you try to justify that Tilak is indispensable that wont change my stance because we know this man very well. He never had a policy or party. He cannot even have a decent conversation. It doesnt matter to me if he is a good human or not. His Karma will follow him. What matters is did he carry out his job. Did he? If there is any malpractice, deception, embazlement iis his job to let the public know. Would he? He is another sidekick of the self made clay-king.
Leave it a side, tell us what he had done in his short tenure as head in the doomed office?
By the way, if iam wrong in my judgement I would accept it and thats why my name is ‘Kekille’ like the head of state.
Bartleet-Trans Capital states the market would not be affected by Karunaratne’s resignation…..
Rather rich wouldn’t you say when their own Director, Wijemanne was a few months ago invloved in one of the biggest stock market scandals.
Funny he and Kariyawasam are now away from the headlights. Whatever happened to that other fraudster Kothalawa? Living off the proceeds of years of corruption and manipulation.
MR should appoint a confident of him a rouge like the former chairman of NSB, or Julampitiye Amare. In this regime no body can expect anything to improve, but to destruct, eg: SLCB,SEC,etc
WOW. Another miracle from the miracle of asia.
its sad SL Will be a casino economy by 2020. All Rajapaksa will be living in australia or singapore . ruppee will be 1000 for usd 1. Lost opportunities. will blame on bad khama. Dictator will be over thrown, another civil war on the horizon, life goes on. Good people doing nothing and migrating will leave the rest to rot with corruption and evil. WE NEED A CHANGE IN ATTITUDE, WE NEED ACCOUNTABILITY FROM OUR LEADERS , WE NEED COURAGE TO DO GOOD AND BE FAIR NOT BE EVIL AND CORRUPT, SAY NO ITS ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,SL IS OUR COUNTRY AND ITS OUR TIME TO CHANGE. ALLAH HELPS US ALL. AMEEN
That is what you expect Ameen,but it will never happen Man,u wait and see by 2020
Forget the character of the man Tilak Karunaratne, forget the character of the person Indrani Sugthadasa ,what they tried to do and did not do is immaterial the sad truth is that our Stock Exchange is rife with corruption.
Who the hell is this Dirtbag Dilith Jayaweera to summon a press conference, he is nothing but a laundry man to the powers that be. He comes out of the blue with billions in hand and starts investing in this country. Where is his money coming from, has our inland revenue department suddenly developed amnesia, if a common man on the street earns for 15 – 20 yrs and buys a plot of land for 2-3 million, the moment this land is registered the bloodsuckers in the IRS will send a booklet of documents to the owner to register at the IRS. Rogues like this Dilith Jayaweera who are boot lickers to the core can invest billions buying up lands and hotels and the IRS suddenly goes deaf, dumb and blind.
The only qualification thieves like Dilith Jayaweera and their ilk is that they have their tongues stuck so far up the posterior of our rulers that the normal laws of the land do not apply to them.
As far as I can see you can appoint the Pope to head the SEC, the corrupt scum bags like Dilith Jayaweera and the other like minded set of thieves in the Stock Exchange will see that they are booted out BECAUSE those at the very top of this totally corrupt government NEED pathetic, scumbag, unprincipled rogues like this Dilith Jayaweera to fill their Swiss accounts.My advice to all those thinking of investing in the Stock Market and the genuine investors is …DON”T. Our stock market is totally and 100% rigged by a set of ROGUE TRADERS who are needed by this governing family for the upkeep of their fortunes.
The most basic rule that should be etched in the minds of our leaders is that the chiefs should be selected on merit and once selected left alone to work their skills without interference. At the rate we are going we’d soon run out of potential chiefs and it would be harder to recruit from the ones left if the freedom to do their job is not assured. They could find one that fits their mould and satisfy their needs but that could be worse than having the posts vacant.
why not appoint dilith jayaweera or his gofer the academic Nalaka God-A-Hewa? then the investigation against them and others like nimal perera, raynor silva and company can be conveniently binned.
It is a good sugeestion to appoint Dilith Wayaweera,Raynor Silva and company to this position. We all know who they became billionaires suddenly.
Saman, you have forgoton that there’s “GOD” watching all these monkey work done by MR & his clan!! Ameen’s right, one must have courage to say a firm “NO” to courruption and evil. When people like you just throw in the towel, and accept all thuggery, intimidations, the likes of MR will thrive!! Stand-up man, be a man, bigger dictators than MR had gone to dust,haven’t you guys learned? Where’s Gaddafi today? This survile attitude of Sri Lankans are shamefull!!
It is abosolutely stunning the way Prsident ambushed Mr. Karunaratne. Self claimed strong character Gota must explin his role in this as he called Mr. Karunartne using his influnce to arrange a meeting between Mr. Karunaratne
and Dilitha-Waruni duo at a time these two rogues have received letters from SEC with regards to their dubious capital transactions. Dilitha and Waruni Amunugama had run to Gota just like scilian mafia members ran to their Godfather when they were in trouble back in the day. Is this the way these
powerful rulers respect the supreme sacrifice our real war heroes made to
save our coutry. When are we going to wake up???