Friday, September 26, 2008

Beware of these Financial Institutions

Central bank has published the following financial institutions as unauthorized financial operators.

1. Okanda Finance (Private) Ltd, (Dehiwala)
2. Sakwithi Ranasinghe (House Construction Pvt. Ltd) , (Nugegoda)
3. Piyadasa Ratnayake, (Hungama)
4. Nadini Finance (Pvt.) Ltd, (Ja-Ela)
5. D.K Udayasiri (Kiribathgoda)
6. Sriyawi Homes and Lands Investments.(Ja-Ela)

I only wish Central bank had the guts to do this a bit sooner. But anyway, better late than never.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Biggest Financial Scam of the year

A major financial scam came to light a few days back in Srilanka. Sakwithi Ranasinghe, a supposed educator of the people, fled the country with billions worth of cash which he had robbed from many innocent people.

Having several companies, this guy managed to trick lots of people in to investing money in his institutions, offering them very high interest rates and many false promises.

What I can’t understand is why people can’t learn from their past experiences. This has happened many times before in our country, we are a nation who forgets many things quite easily, and as a result we pay a very heavy price for it.

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 there 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; you should always have a backup plan.

the “what if” should always be thought of. Selling you lands, houses and cars and investing that money is definitely not the way to go!

I have been following the case of sakwithi, and i noticed that many people have done this. How stupid can you get?? There were many bitter lessons learned from this. It is very sad that some people have lost their entire lifetime’s earnings to a two bit scammer like this.

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 :) )