Convicted financial fraudster Sakvithi Ranasinghe and his wife have been fined Rs. 1.8 million each by the Colombo High Court, after the duo pleaded guilty to charges of financial fraud.
Colombo High Court Judge Namal Balalle further ordered that they be sentenced to 24 months of rigorous imprisonment, in the event that they fail to pay the relevant fine.
In July this year, the disgraced former English tutor and his wife had pleaded guilty to financial fraud charges after they were accused of operating an unauthorized financial institution and misusing its deposits worth over Rs. 164 million obtained from the public.
Ranasinghe and his wife had misappropriated an amount to the tune of Rs. 164,185,000 by misusing the funds of the depositors of his illegal financial company “S.R. Property Sharing Investment (Pvt) Ltd” during the period between January 01, 2006 and September 03, 2008.
Ranasinghe started off as an English language tutor, and after gaining some popularity he had set up a financial institution that offered higher interest rates for depositors to invest their money. He is also said to have been involved in a real estate business through his other company ‘Sakvithi Constructions’, which he used to purchase and sell properties using forged deeds.
The scam was eventually exposed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in September 2008 after looking into a multitude of complaints filed by its victims.
Ranasinghe then fled to Chennai, India shortly after his illegal activities had come under the spotlight. However, upon his return to the island, Mirihana Police arrested both him and his wife in August 2010.
In 2022, the Colombo High Court handed Ranasinghe a 22-year rigorous imprisonment sentence suspended for five years after the accused pleaded guilty to 11 charges laid against him.
The accused was fined Rs. 25,000 for each charge. Meanwhile, his wife, who pleaded guilty to one of the charges levelled in this case, was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for five years. She was fined Rs. 25,000.
