Cheated Touchwood depositors meet on Wednesday

By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera

Adding to troubled forestry firm Touchwood’s woes, Sri Lankan expatriates in Dubai and Australia who invested in Touchwood plantations are joining forces with depositors in Sri Lanka in a new attempt to seek justice against the company.

The Maloney’s –Ross and Swarna who founded the company – are absconding abroad and sought by the Lankan authorities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has intervened in a case where an aggrieved investor is seeking to wind up Touchwood Investments, said on Friday that they have completed their investigation and handed it over to the court. The case was taken up on Monday in the Colombo High Court and put off till April 3rd for written submissions by all involved parties.

Lakshan Dias, Attorney at Law representing some creditors of Touchwood, told the Business Times that a meeting of about 20 depositors will be held on Wednesday. One depositor who didn’t wish to be identified in a telephone conversation told the Business Times that he along with a dozen or so others had got ‘caught’ to Touchwood when a team from their Thailand office had done some promotions more than three years ago in Dubai. “Three of us are sending our proxies through our relations to attend this meeting,” he said.

Another depositor said that last September some Touchwood directors had met with them and informed that the company had obtained an expert opinion which said that if the depositors waited for three more years, their harvest in the plantations in Thailand which they invested in will double. “Some of us renewed our contracts for three more years,” he said. He added that some others who refused this proposition were given cheques from the directors’ personal accounts, but they had bounced.

Mr. Dias said that some depositors in Australia are also sending their power of attorneys for the meeting on Wednesday.

The Maloney’s sold the company to a group of investors led by present chairman Lanka Kiwilegedera whose efforts to revive the company have so far not succeeded. Swarna Maloney had been in contact with one depositor in a Skype-call from a South-East Asian country and promised to return the money by end-February. That promise is yet to be fulfilled.

SEC Deputy Director General Dhammika Perera told the Business Times that there are some “issues” in their report that could come under the Penal Code and warrant a CID investigation. “I can’t disclose the people that we suspect but while there are issues that could be dealt under the SEC Act, there are other issues that could come under the Penal Code,” he said.

Trading in Touchwood shares at the Colombo Stock Exchange has been suspended for several days.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/140330/business-times/cheated-touchwood-depositors-meet-on-wednesday-90447.html

Thx Red for the update.

This is really sad situation for mainly TWOD depositors and other stakeholders of the company. This case is dragging too much. Time to time Mr. Kiwle doing some show and dissapiaring. But problem is same place. Investors/Depositors are in "No confidence zone".