Tilak gets exposed, Dhammika sent home

Nov 18, 2015

Customs Investigation Officials have revealed that Multiform Chemicals (Pvt) Ltd owned by Tilak Karunaratne, Politician and currently the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission has been violating the country’s Customs Laws by deliberately continuing to violate the Customs Laws of the country and depriving the Government of the much needed revenue.

Once an aggressive supporter of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Tilak Karunaratne became a vociferous critic as he was not appointed the organizer for Bandaragama. Although he was the Chairman of SEC then, he resigned saying that he has been intimidated by “the powers that be” to step down. At the time he deviously fabricated a story to the Media saying that it was the “Stock Market Mafia” which influenced President Rajapaksa to remove him.

This shocking revelation clearly exposes Tilak Karunaratne’s company Multiform Chemicals, which has been the agent of a French company called Roquette for 15 yaers, which manufactures plant based raw materials. Multiform has been through years, importing food grade corn starch from the said company and supplying the same to reputed companies like Hemas, Unilever, State Pharmaceuticals etc. as a food and pharmaceutical raw material. However, in paying duty for the importation, Tilak Karunaratne and his company has knowingly and fraudulently continued to declare that he was importing these shipments on the basis of an industrial grade corn starch, which he was supplying to certain textile companies in the country for yarn sizing.

It is very important to note the difference in duty between food grade corn starch and industrial grade corn starch, which is 25% and 10% respectively. This manipulation of HS codes is a gross violation of the country’s customs duty regulations and amounts to defrauding the Government of Sri Lanka of revenue. Considering the longevity and frequency of Tilak Karunaratne’s shipments, a fraud amounting to approx. Rs.450 Million has been established by Customs officials.

The real reason why Dhammika Perera, Head of Investigations of SEC has been suddenly sent on compulsory leave by Tilak Karunaratne (as reported in the Sunday Times of 15th November), is directly related to this expose, sources at SEC divulge. An anonymous letter exposing details of Tilak Karunaratne’s duplicity and fraudulent ways have reached SEC senior officials and it is said that Dhammika Perera was very interested in investigating the veracity of the accusations. So in a bid to prevent an investigation on his personal integrity and the consideration of his suitability to continue to head one of the main financial institutions of the country, Tilak Karunaratne has removed Dhammike Perera, in a desperate attempt to derail the upcoming investigations.