380. Offences by officers of companies in liquidation

Official English translation. The Sinhala text prevails. Open the official Sinhala text, official PDF on documents.gov.lk

(1)

Where any person being a past or present officer of a company which at the time of the commission of the alleged offence is being wound up whether by or under the supervision of the court or voluntarily, or is subsequently ordered to be wound up by the court or subsequently passes a resolution for voluntary winding up—

(a)

does not to the best of his knowledge and belief fully and truly make known to the liquidator all the property, movable and immovable, of the company, and how and to whom and for what consideration and when the company disposed of any part thereof, except such part as has been disposed of in the ordinary course of the business of the company;

(b)

does not deliver to the liquidator or as he directs, all such part of the movable and immovable property of the company as in his custody or under his control, and which he is required by law to deliver;

(c)

does not deliver to the liquidator or as he directs, all books and papers in his custody or under his control belonging to the company and which he is required by law to deliver;

(d)

makes any material omission in any statement relating to the affairs of the company;

(e)

knowing or believing that a false debt has been proved by any person under the winding up, fails for the period of one month to inform the liquidator thereof;

(f)

after the date of commencement of the winding up, prevents the production of any book or paper affecting or relating to the property or affairs of the company;

(g)

after the date of commencement of the winding up or at any meeting of the creditors of the company within the twelve months immediately prior to the date of commencement of the winding up, attempts to account for any part of the property of the company by fictious losses or expenses;

(h)

has within the twelve months immediately prior to the date of commencement of the winding up or at any time thereafter, by any false representation or other fraud, obtained any property for or on behalf of the company on credit which the company does not subsequently pay for;

(i)

within the twelve months immediately prior to the date of commencement of the winding up or at any time thereafter, under the false pretense that the company is carrying on its business, obtains on credit for or on behalf of the company, any property which the company does not subsequently pay for; or

(j)

is guilty of any false representation or other fraud for the purpose of obtaining the consent of the creditors of the company or any of them, to an agreement with reference to the affairs of the company or to the winding up, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction, in the case of the offences referred to in paragraphs (h), (i) and (j), be liable to a fine not exceeding one million rupees or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both such fine and imprisonment, and in the case of any other offence under the provisions of this subsection, be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand rupees or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment:

Provided that it shall be a good defence to a charge under the provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d) and (i), for the accused to prove that he had no intent to defraud, and to a charge under the provisions of paragraph (f), to prove that he had no intent to conceal the state of affairs of the company or to defeat the law.

(2)

For the purposes of this section, the expression

“officer” shall include any person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of a company have been accustomed to act.

Read on from s 381

Part XIII