I wish I could say I knew it. But I was too afraid to publish anything about him since I did not have any evidence to prove my sayings.
This guy was on National TV every week and acted like the savior of all student population.
So most people kept their mouths shut even though a lot have suspected him about his integrity. Anyone with a sense could smell that he is not up for any good when there were endless advertisements inviting people to invest in his unlicensed investment company.
I live in a country where most of the people do not know how there next meal is going to come by. It is not an exaggeration but the hardcore reality. So when someone famous offer them a luxury investment opportunity most of the people are going to fall for that. Especially when he is an authority figure created by the media and has been a popular character in the country for the last 10-15 years.
Now it is all done. Sakvithi Ranasinghe, the famous English tuition master has evaporates with five billion rupees collected from innocent Sri Lankans. Those innocent people wanted nothing but a sound financial future. He had offered returns as high as 30 percent. By contrast, one year government bonds yield a return of only 18 percent.
These investments were life savings of them. Some has sold their only property and invested in his company. Poor women who had to work years in Middle East are now left with only a paper certificate.
Tax payers pay billions each year for the salary of Central bank employees just so we can listen to their aftermath press releases.
We thought you would learn after the Pramuka bank Incident, We thought you would learn after the Goldquest incident. What about Lotus investments? Are you aware that this is run by the same guys behind Goldquest? What about the seagul scammers.
All these companies scammed billions and the owners still lives their luxury lives overseas.
And our Central bank keeps on doing press releases. God Bless Sri Lanka.
Our request to control bodies is, “Please do not let this happen again”. Do a complete analysis about Forestry companies.All these companies are promising outrageous profits.
For an example take a look at the Returns chart of Touchwood investments.
Initial cost – Income
Rs 90,000 – Rs 3,000,000
Rs 177,000 – Rs 6,000,000
Rs 350,000 – Rs12,500,000$ 1 = Rs 110
I am not suggesting they all are scammers. But I am not really comfortable with the above numbers. And to make things worse, their investment plan is maturing only after 15-20 years. Have the authorities done their reviews about these companies? If not, it is high time you start doing it. These companies collect millions each day from investors and hundreds of people rely on them for their financial future.
Central bank says they have banned all network marketing schemes. Can someone explain what Lotus investments is doing? Tiens Lanka, Are they any better? How are they operating from the heart of Colombo? To the Central bank officials, there are rats in your institution. People expect lot more from you than what you are doing at the moment.
“Antharjalaya” is a site which gets loads of visitors from all around the world. I sincerely request from my international readers to help us catch this scammer. He may be in your country. Spread his photo around. Do what ever it’s necessary. No crime is greater than ripping off the poor. He has done the ultimate crime and we need him back in Sri Lanka before he spends out most of it on prostitutes and on gambling. ( He is addicted to both.)
Help us spread the word and capture this criminal. Your digg, stumble, reddit vote will matter a lot this time.
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Do not forget to read the Following.
I am giving away Rs 23,000 in cash.
Share market suckz, Let's play with Euros and dollars.
Such a sad story. People do not learn their lessons. I was a victim of seagul. And I knew this was going to end up like this. An eye opener for Mr good for nothing Kabral.
Couldn’t agree with you more about Touchwood. I have the same feeling. I bet the directors will fly out of the country after another 10-12 years. Just when most of investments are maturing.Got to watch out.
I always suspected this guy , his offers were just too good to be true , but as you have mentioned appear in TV once or twice and people in this country start believing them. Lets hope we catch this scammer and bring him to justice
Well people should know better than to fall for it.. (Saying as some one who fell for Seagull scam..lol)..
After all hv we learnt nothing…a cunning person will always find a way to go past authority… There’s no real point in blaming the Central bank for people’s stupidity..
about Touchwood..isnt it listed in the Stock exchange??
@ Acromantula
So did Enron. Remember what happened? Being listed in the stock exchange does not guarantee that the company will live up to it’s expectations. They can be a good company. But it is better to do a review now rather than later.
Yes it is a very sad situation.. But what i cant understand is why people cant learn from their past experiences.
If you plan to invest your money the safest place with a minimum amount of risk would be a reputed bank. The returns maybe low compared, but the risk is minimal. I myself have invested money in banks, and their are many “so called” financial institutions offering unbelievable interest rates. My advice is don’t fall for any of it!! you never know when the directors might pack up and leave the country with your hard earned money.
Also, i believe that an investment always has a risk factor. So I simply stick to this rule.
“INVEST ONLY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOOSE” never solely rely on your investments for the future, always have a backup plan.
the “what if” should always be thought of.
There are so many scammers out there taking advantage of innocent people promising them the “good life”. Another breed of scammers in sri lanka are these so called “personality trainers”. Anyways, I hope they catch this guy, bring him to SL, and beat the S*** out of him (wishful thinking:) )
I like your writing style and the way you express.
Of course there is another major SCAMMER is operating using very similar strategies SAKVITHI did. If you take some weekends newspapers you can easily identify. i believe that most of the people might aware of him also.
As you have mentioned, sad to believe that “we live in a country where most of the people do not know how there next meal is going to come by”.
It’s hard to believe that such a man can exist in a country that needs it’s citizen to help each other.
It’s getting harder and harder to trust anyone nowaday, even in the United States.
@ Dinesh,
Very nicely written comment..You should have your own blog..
@Darshana,
I know who you are talking about. Guess we wont be seeing his ads in the coming weeks. And as always when things cool off he will be back. We, as a nation very easily forget things.
@ Nuhong,
It is sad to see that the whole world is like this.
It is ridiculous how human beings tread on other human beings. He will get his in the end.
One must always investigate and fully research any financial investment in my opinion if your willing to put money anywhere without knowing everything you possibly can then you are not a sound business person. Some of my friends say I am anal about my money or jewish, but I am always the one they ask for money when they can’t pay rent.
Hello,
It is really sad about what had happened.The poor public are again sufferring. The central bank people are responsible for this, they should know about these bogus investment ventures beforehand. They have the skills and the knowledge about such scams and should have informed the public and most importantly banned such financial institutes.
They should know that they are getting a big salary compared with the rest of Sri Lanka’s workforce ( at retirement they are entitled to a pension as well as a provident fund and lots of allowances) I have heard that even a cleark in the Central bank earns a big paycheck.
So these guys should look after the poor public because they are living to the tax payers money and should be more caring towards the public. But I think everyone nowadays are thinking only about themselves, their future and just do not think about other. What a shame for a country where the majority are Buddhists!
Heard there are some high profile people (like our spring queen) having put money with sakvithi (mama iganweemata upannemi – yes to teach a damn lesson to the entire country). They are not owing up due to tax issues / embarrassment etc..
Its a shame that some person are just using their knowledge to scam other people.
Hi All,
It is so sad what is happening back home. I do sympathize for the people who got scammed.
When it comes to scammers like Sakvithi, we just can’t put the blame only on Central Bank and the government. I am not for the government any way. but, my argument is that part of the blame should be taken by the people them selves too, who tend to invest their hard earned money in this kind of places. this is simply not the first such indecent happened in our country.
From what I have heard, this Sakvithi guy was offering Rs6000 a month for an investment of Rs100000. isn’t this too good to be true? If something is too good to be true, it is simply not.I think one should put little bit of a thinking before go and dump their life saving in to some unknown investment.
The fact is that there will be always scammers as far as there are people who get scammed. so, the question is whether we blame others for what is happening and keep on doing all the stupid things we have been doing and have more heart breaks or take a step back,think before we commit any thing and avoid any further heart breaks?
the very first thing that came to my mind when I heard this indecent is;
“Thnhaa jaayathee socoo, thanhaa jaayathee bhayang”
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