Golden Key

Oct 24, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka will file criminal charges against directors of Golden Key Credit Card Company, an unregulated firm promising high interest rates that collapsed owing 26 billion rupees to investors, a media report said.







Another media report by The Sunday Times newspaper said some depositors had filed an affidavit at an ongoing supreme court hearing on the issue opposing the move.

A planned sale of a hotel to repay depositors has also been put on hold, reports said.

The Sunday Island newspaper quoted Sri Lanka's attorney general Mohan Peiris as saying that criminal indictments will shortly be filed against its chairman Lalith Kotelawala, his wife Sicille and other directors of the firm.

Golden Key ran a ponzi-style high yield investment scheme which did not have enough revenue generating cashflows to sustain the high yields promised to investors.

Director of the firm including Kotelawala is now on bail and the whereabouts of his wife is not known.

The report quoted Peiris as saying that the investigation was long and charges would be filed as soon as an audit which was underway was completed.

Last week Golden Key investors met president Mahinda Rajapaksa where a plant to set up an