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| Sunday, 5 June 2005 |
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Gold Quest business illegal - Bank Act by Jayantha Sri Nissanka Gold Quest operators who have not stopped their operations in Sri Lanka challenge the Central Bank (CB) to sue them if their business is illegal. However, the Central Bank is also in confusion whether the Gold Quest business is illegal or not according to the contradicting views of senior officials as no ruling has been made that Gold Quest is pyramid business. Director Banking Supervision of the CB Ms.Joan de Zilva addressing the Media on Friday said that the Gold Quest business is illegal according to the Banking Amendment Act. All Commercial Banks have been advised to stop Gold Quest transactions. But, Assistant Director Sirikumara Kudagama of the Legal Department of the CB told the Sunday Observer that they do not have concrete evidence so far to say that Gold Quest is an illegal business or to say that its a pyramid type business. "But we are closely monitoring whether the Gold Quest is violating the Banking Amendment Act", he noted. "Many people were alleged duped by promoters of Gold Quest due to the lethargy of the CB to declare the Gold Quest operation as an illegal business. Still the CB has failed to identify this business as an illegal one even after the Gold Quest had transferred US$ 15 million during an 18 month period. Innocent people will not fall prey to the Gold Quest promoters if the Central Bank is not sleeping", a victim Dilini Lanka Priyadarshani told the Sunday Observer. However, Gold Quest operators were in fumes when President of the Pyramid Scheme Alert, USA, Robert L. FitzPatrick described pyramid business was like a financial tsunami for developing countries at the Central Bank Training Centre at Rajagiriya on Thursday. Gold Quest operators told the Sunday Observer that they do not operate pyramid business though the CB has declared their business as a pyramid scheme. "Our business is Network Marketing". FitzPatrick said that many multi level marketing programmes are disguised pyramid schemes or new form of fraud in global market economies where 10 percent of people benefit at the cost of 90 percent. He urged Sri Lanka to launch a national campaign to educate people and strong commitment of authorities to clearly identify the fraud as pyramid promoters introduce these schemes with different faces and modalities circumventing the prevailing regulatory system. He noted that economies of Albania and Rumania have been ruined by pyramid scams. However, recent amendments to the Banking Act in 2005 has prohibited the operation of pyramid schemes. |
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