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Perversely ‘Covered-up’ Fraud on Sri Lanka Government (Volume II)

In this voluminous Book in a series by the Author on corruption, fraud and economic crime, with indepth analysis, transcending forensic accounting, he brilliantly reveals, with incisive diametrics, irrefutable evidence of criminality, in the construction of Colombo Hilton Hotel by Mitsui & Taisei, Japan, with Architects, Kanko Kikaku Sekkeisha Yozo Shibata & Associates – successful civil prosecution by Author led to Japanese writing-off US $ 207 Mn. He establishes beyond reasonable doubt, that original Architectural Plans had been suppressed / destroyed by a staged fire, with amended Architectural Plans surreptitiously substituted being cannibalized Sheets, with incongruous elevations, whereby such Plans could not be approved. Meticulously probing into elevations on Floor Sheets and Cross-Sectional Sheets, which crucial aspect had been overlooked by professional architectural investigations, he proves the shortfall of floors, with the elevations on tampered Sheets bearing ‘tell tale’ evidence of being identical, with elevations in the cross-sections of the Project Plan, upon which Hilton International formulated Profitability Forecasts, to obtain State Guarantees from Sri Lanka Government, to finance this construction, which was a major fraud perpetrated on the people, rendering such guarantees null and void. Shockingly revealed are perverse endeavours, including by Auditors, KPMG Ford, Rhodes, Thornton & Co., to cover-up this massive fraud, involving upper echelons, with socio-political / international ramifications.

Appallingly, criminal investigations were significantly abandoned, on advice of Attorney General. Securities Exchange Commission colluded to cover-up, whilst Chartered Accountants Institute endeavoured to whitewash miscreants. This is a revealingly absorbing Book of real experiences of the Author, in exposing and combating, a despicable fraud on the people, which to him was a crime against humanity, and would be invaluable to investigators and prosecutors of commercial frauds and crimes, and civil society urging equal enforcement of the rule of law.

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Criminality Exposed Colombo Hilton Hotel Construction

Perversely ‘Covered-up’ Fraud on Sri Lanka Government (Volume II)

PREVIEW

Thereupon, Senior Superintendent of Police Ronnie Goonesinghe queerly queried – “Are you not taking a risk with your life in proceeding with this Case ? Should you not consider withdrawing this Case, because it is causing embarrassment to the Government” ? The demeanor and manner of his such diversion and query, took me by surprise. I looked at him straight in the face, with eye contact, and very sternly retorted – “Mr Ronnie Goonesinghe, I was born on one day, and I will die on another day.  These two days in my life are fixed, with no options. I will tread my path until that day of death, regardless of whether, it has to be a death, as a result of a bullet from a gun of yours, or anyone else”.

In a shocking revelation before the Special Presidential Commission, Superintendent of Police, Ranjith de Silva, who had been the Officer-in-Charge of the Fort Police Station at the time of the Hilton Hotel Construction Site Office fire in October 1985, giving evidence asserted, that the Report purported to be from the Fort Police Station on the said fire in October 1985, had been an utter fabrication !

It was shockingly revealed, that both the original Architectural Plans submitted to the UDA on 19th October 1983, and the surreptitiously substituted purported Amended Architectural Plans approved by the UDA in 1986, had been available at the UDA in May 1991, after I had instituted in September 1990 the District Court of Colombo Case No. 3155/Spl on grounds of fraud in the construction of the Colombo Hilton Hotel.

The Show Cause Notices setting out several Charges of acts of commission and/or omission on their part, fraudulent and detrimental to the interests of HDL and/or the Government of Sri Lanka, in its capacity as the major Shareholder, causing financial loss and damage to HDL and/or the Government of Sri Lanka, required of them to show cause, as to why they should not be found guilty of misuse or abuse of power and/or corruption and/or commission of fraudulent acts, in terms of the Special Presidential Commissions of Inquiry Law No. 7 of 1978.

It was discovered that the ‘Scope of Work’ defined, as per Clause 3 of the Construction Agreement, between HDL and Mitsui & Taisei Consortium, and counter-signed by the Japanese Architects, Kanko Kikaku Sekkeisha Yozo Shibata & Associates, for the construction of the Colombo Hilton Hotel, at Sub-Clause 3(2) had surreptitiously excluded from the ‘Scope of Work’, the totality of the construction of the Recreational Area, containing the Swimming Pool.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya directed me to look at the Floor Sheet numbered A-19 in these Amended Architectural Plans. Floor Sheet numbered A-19 was stated to be in respect of the ‘3RD FLOOR PLAN’.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya, then directed me to a certain point on Floor Sheet A-19, described as  ‘ELEVATOR HALL’, and required me to examine and state, as to what was written at such point. Having examined the said point on the Floor Sheet A-19 pertaining to ‘3RD FLOOR PLAN’, I answered – ‘EL 24.5 – 66.5’

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then queried – “Witness, Third Floor cannot have a range of elevations ‘EL 24.5 – 66.5’, and that ‘EL 24.5’ would be the elevation of the Third Floor ?”  – I answered in the affirmative.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya pointed out that the word ‘3RD FLOOR’ had been hand written and had not been printed with the use of a stencil, and required me to examine and answer. I examined and affirmed that it appeared to be handwritten, and not stencil printed.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then directed me to look at the next Sheet, which was Sheet numbered ‘A-20’, and required me to state the Floor, which this next Sheet A-20 referred to. I examined and stated – ‘TYPICAL – 4TH. THRU 17TH. FLOOR PLAN’. He further required me to examine and state whether this too had been handwritten, and not printed with the use of a stencil. I examined and confirmed it to be so.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya directed me to the same point on this Floor Sheet ‘A-20’ described as ELEVATOR HALL, and required me to examine and state what had been stated at such point. I examined and replied‘EL 24.5 – 66.5’

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya posed the question – “Witness, so the 4th Floor to the 17th Floor have elevations going up from 24.5 Meters to 66.5 Meters”. I affirmed that this was what was stated.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then exhorted – “So Witness, Sheet A-19 depicting the 3rd Floor, which you examined previously gave the 3rd Floor an elevation of 24.5 Meters, and Sheet A-20 which you now examined gives the elevation of the 4th Floor, also as 24.5 Meters ?” I re-checked and affirmed that this is what has been stated on these two Sheets A-19 and A-20.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya, with the other Commissioners, Chairman Justice P.R.P. Perera and Justice H.S. Yapa, concurring, asserted that the 3rd Floor and the 4th Floor cannot be at the same elevation, and that this was an inherent, intrinsic, impossibility.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then directed me to the same point described as ‘ELEVATOR HALL’ on Floor Sheet A-22, which was the 19th Floor, and required me to examine and state what was stated at that point. I examined and answered that it had been originally stated as ‘EL +72.70’, but that it had been struck-off with a line and reads as ‘EL + 72.70’.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then directed to me examine the next Sheet A-23 stated to be ‘1ST. 2ND PENTHOUSE FLOOR PLAN’, which I confirmed was also handwritten and not stencil printed, and that this had no Penthouses, but was the Roof Slab.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then required me to examine several points on this Sheet A-23, which was the Roof Slab, and state the elevations, which had been given thereon. Having examined Sheet A-23, I stated that there were different elevations varying from +72.00 Meters, +72.50 Meters, +74.25 Meters, +74.70 Meters, +77.00 Meters and +77.10 Me­ters.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then questioned me, as to the lowest elevations depicted on this Sheet A-23, which was the Roof Slab. I examined and answered that the lowest elevation given on Roof Slab Sheet A-23 was 72.00 Meters and another elevation 72.50 Meters.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then stated – “Witness, so therefore, there was no 19th Floor as per Sheet A-22 ?” I agreed that, that was so, and that the elevation of the Roof Slab had elevations even below the level of the elevation at which the 19th Floor should have been at, as depicted above.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then amusingly pointed out – that it therefore disclosed that the Roof Slab was in fact below the 19th Floor !

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya, with the other Commissioners, Chairman Justice P.R.P Perera, and Justice H.S. Yapa, concurring, asserted that the Roof Slab cannot be below the 19th Floor, and that this was an inherent, intrinsic, impossibility.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then directed me to examine the Floor height elevations given on the Scaleson the left hand side of these Sheets numbered A-28 and A-29. He required me to examine and confirm the height difference given between two Floors. I did so and confirmed that it was ‘2.90 Meters’ and not ‘3.0 Meters’.

Commissioner Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then stated – “Witness, so the elevations shown on the ‘CROSS SECTION SHEETS’ of these Architectural Plans in respect of the relevant Floors are different to the elevations given on the respective Floor Sheets of these very same Architectural Plans, which you have just examined ?” I examined and answered in the affirmative.

Commissioner Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya, with the other Commissioners, Chairman Justice P.R.P. Perera and Justice H.S. Yapa, concurring, asserted that elevations given on the Floor Sheets of these Architectural Plans, cannot be different to the elevations given in respect of these very same Floors in the Scales given in the ‘CROSS SECTION SHEETS’, of the very same Architectural Plans, depicting the height of the Building, and that this too was an inherent, intrinsic, impossibility.

Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya then exhorted – “Witness, let alone constructing such a Building, the UDA could never have approved such a set of Architectural Plans ?”. I admitted that the UDA could never have approved such lop-sided Architectural Plans.

All Counsel got stumped and none of the Counsel came forward to cross-examine me on the foregoing evidence of irrefutable evidence of criminality, notwithstanding Commissioner-Justice F.N.D. Jayasuriya having amusingly exhorted them repeatedly on several days each morning, to cross-examine me on the aforesaid evidence, if they could, and he placed on record of such inability on the part of these Counsel to have cross-examined me on the foregoing evidence.

A further startling disclosure was that the elevations shown on the Floor Sheets of these purported Amended Architectural Plans were identical to the elevations shown in respect of these very Floors on the Cross Sectional Sheet of the Project Plan of July 1980, which had been drawn by the Japanese Architects, Kanko Kikaku Sekkeisha Yozo Shibata & Associates.

This well and truly established, that the original Architectural Plans, which had been submitted to the UDA on 19th October 1983 had been drawn in conformity with the Project Plan of July 1980.

Upon such irrefutable evidence of criminality being disclosed, Chairman-Justice P.R.P Perera of the Special Presidential Commission, could not help, but involuntarily spontaneously observe that this was a ‘black case’, as black as the case of the Buddhist Priest Talduwa Somarama Thera, who was sentenced to death, for having shot dead on 25th September 1959 Sri Lanka’s then Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, father of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

K.N. Choksy, P.C., M.P., and Justice & Constitutional Minister, G.L. Peiris had pleaded with and persuaded President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, to agree not to extend the Presidential Warrant in 1999, in order that K.N. Choksy, P.C., M.P., and those others against whom Show Cause Notices, containing several Charges, on grounds of fraud against the Government of Sri Lanka had been served by the Special Presidential Commission, were saved from the risk of being found guilty, and the consequences thereof.

To rectify such catastrophical wrong decision and judgment President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga directed her former Secretary, K. Balapadabendi, who the Senior Advisor to her, to immediately draft a Letter to the Inspector General of Police, to forthwith commence investigations into the matter of the fraud in the construction of the Colombo Hilton Hotel, strictly enforcing the rule of law.

In the said Letter dated 5th March 2004 addressed to the Inspector General of Police, Indra de Silva, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga had required him to inform her by that very evening the names of the Officers to whom he had assigned for the investigation into the fraud in the construction of the Colombo Hilton Hotel.

Consequently on 12th March 2004, 4 Officers of the CID, led by Inspector of Police, P. Visvanathan, visited my Office, and recorded a Statement from me. The contents of my Statement are self-explanatory. Upon affording explanations, with documentary evidence, Inspector of Police, P. Visvanathan and other CID Officers, were shocked and admitted that this was one of the major frauds, they had come across in Sri Lanka !

On 4th April 2008 I received the following Letter from the Senior Superintendent of Police, CID, C.M. Wakishta, with copy to the Hon. Attorney General, intimating inability to proceed with the investigation. I was later made to understand that the said Letter had been sent on the advice of the Hon. Attorney General, which Office at that time was held by C.R. De Silva, President’s Counsel.

In complete contrast to the foregoing, the Solicitor General, P.L.D. Premaratne, President’s Counsel, had assisted the Special Presidential Commission, to issue Show Cause Notices, against several persons, containing several Charges on grounds of fraud against the Government of Sri Lanka, even prior to the disclosure of the aforesaid ‘irrefutable evidence of criminality’ before the Special Presidential Commission !

The foregoing speaks volumes, as to how the law enforcement authorities in Sri Lanka, had upheld and enforced the rule of law ! The foregoing amply demonstrates the socio-political realities, that the network of persons in the upper echelons of society, though pontificating in the public domain on the need for good governance and codes of conduct, in reality shamelessly act otherwise !