Video: Funds placed in Swiss banks via Seychelles: UNP

11 July 2014 11:57 am

The United National Party (UNP) said today there was a trend where black money including money swindled from development projects was deposited in Swiss banks through Seychelles because Switzerland was tightening its laws.

It said that though all funds deposited in Swiss banks were not ill-gotten lucre a large amount of such funds were deposited concealing the true identity.    

UNP parliamentarian and well-known economist Harsha De Silva said the amount of funds deposited in Swiss banks under Sri Lankan addresses had decreased in recent years because of strict laws adopted by Switzerland while deposits through Seychelles had drastically increased.

“The population in Seychelles is slightly more than 90,000 but the deposits under the addresses of that country are worth about 3,000 million Swiss Francs last year, which is higher than the accumulated deposits under Sri Lankan addresses,” he said.  

Dr. De Silva said most of the addresses in Seychelles are of companies which are registered within another company. (Lahiru Pothmulla and Yoshitha Perera)

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