Depositors made destitute by the callous greed of failed finance companies

By Namini Wijedasa

Unconscious on her hospital bed in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) of a private hospital in Colombo, Marjorie David is oblivious to the predicament of her family.

The 58-year-old had complained of difficulty in breathing and fainted while at work on February 17. Her brain was deprived of oxygen and she now lies motionless, a tube inserted into her mouth. She does not respond to voices and shows no sign of recovery. But the hospital bills are mounting and the family can’t pay because her savings are tied up in the failed Central Investments and Finance Ltd (CIFL)

“The hospital called this morning and said we have to pay another installment,” said Neomie Nagarajah, Marjorie’s sister. “Her husband is on the way there to settle some money but he is also finding it very difficult. We are in a helpless situation.”

Marjorie had collected some earnings—Rs 3.5 million—to meet just this kind of emergency. She was married with no children; she realised, more than anybody, the importance of financial independence in old age.

Neomie doesn’t know who advised Marjorie to deposit her savings at CIFL but she remembers warning her sister once that the company had problems. “I had money at Ceylinco Investment and Realty Ltd and when they were experiencing a crisis, I told her that CIFL also seemed to be in trouble,” she recounted. “She said, ‘No, akka, I’m getting my interest, nothing is wrong’.”

CIFL stopped meeting its interest payments in March-April 2013. Since then, depositors—who have formed themselves into an association—have been fighting to get their dues. Cases are also being heard in court but it is a long and torturous wait for the old and sick. Some depositors have already passed away before regaining their monies. Their families swear that the collapse of CIFL expedited their deaths.

Neomie requested this newspaper to publish a photograph of her sister in the hope, however illogical, that it would cause the bankrupt CIFL to release her savings. “She was admitted to hospital on Monday,” she said. “By the next day, the bill was more than Rs. 112,000. We don’t know what to do.”

Madu Wickramasuriya Peiris knows the burden of hospital bills all too well. In 2004, doctors discovered she had breast cancer and carried out a mastectomy. In 2009, she was diagnosed with womb cancer and they operated again. In December last year, she experienced an abnormal pain. Tests showed that she had ovarian cancer which had spread to her stomach.

Since her doctor had retired from government service, Madu started consulting him in the private sector. “The injections alone cost Rs 52, 000,” she said. “With other medications, the bill comes around to Rs 90,000 a month.”

Like many others, she is desperate to get her money—Rs. 2.5 million—out of CIFL. “We had a house in Torrington which we sold in order to fund my son’s education. My brother and I shared the proceeds. For a while, I got a good interest from CIFL. I was going to take the money out to spend on my son’s education, but all that has stopped now.”

Madu’s brother is also in a precarious financial situation. Unlike Madu, who had deposited only some of her share, he had placed all of the money he got from the sale of the house with CIFL. “He lost his job and, since the house was sold, he moved into a rented house. His wife has no income and he has two children. They can’t afford the rent. I’m helping in their upkeep. I think it is the stress that made my illness worse.”

These are just three out of many cases. The CIFL depositors continue to camp, day and night, at the company’s head office in Colombo, in the hope that President Mahinda Rajapaksa will grant them an audience.
- Sunday Times