Rajapaksa family

[5][6] Following the unexpected defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election, they have been accused of authoritarianism, corruption, nepotism and bad governance.

[8] The popularity of the Rajapaksa family collapsed after their actions caused the economic crisis that started in 2019, resulting in Sri Lanka defaulting on its debt for the first time in its post-independence history within just 30 months of coming to power.

[9] The extended Rajapaksa family is believed to have amassed a large amount of wealth and while the amount of and scale is unknown several members of the family have been revealed in international investigations such as the Pandora Papers to be using networks of shell companies and trusts to hide their wealth in offshore tax havens which has led to accusations of Rajapaksas turning Sri Lanka into a Kleptocracy[10][2] The Rajapaksas are a rural land-owning family from the village Giruwapattuwa in the southern district of Hambantota.

[11] One of its members, Don David Rajapaksa, held the feudal post of Vidanarachchi in Ihala Valikada Korale.

In 2010 Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected President contesting against a grand opposition coalition that included UNP, TNA, JVP.

[17][18][19] Subsequently, Chamal was elected as the Speaker of Parliament unanimously and Basil was appointed as the Minister of Economic Development.

[28][29][30] The Rajapaksas deny the charges of nepotism even though evidence of large amounts of corruption, such as the censorship of journalists and the family's unwillingness to yield power to recent victorious Tamils in Northern Sri Lanka, exist everywhere the country.

[35] The Rajapaksa family received numerous state resource abuse complaints from organisations and election monitors, including involvement in fraud, misuse of powers, and murder.

[39] Sirisena's government sought help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in locating this hidden wealth to expose the alleged corruption of the previous regime.

[40] An Anti-Corruption Unit was formed by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the new Cabinet has appointed a high-powered "rapid response team" to look into corrupt land transactions, stock market price-fixing and the abuse of state funds for political purposes by Rajapaksa family and the close association of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

[40] Public sentiment towards the ruling Rajapaksha-led government took a significant downturn during the foreign currency and economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka in 2022.

[41] In the escalation of protests, an angry mob in Sri Lanka burned down several homes belonging to the Rajapaksa family.

[55][56] Rohitha Rajapaksa who has never been employed and lacks any recorded sources of income was found to own a luxury hotel in the Sinharaja reserve called the "Green Eco Lodge".

[58] Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband Thirukumar Nadesan was exposed by the Pandora Papers for using offshore shell companies to hide their wealth.

The couple was revealed to own luxury apartments in Sydney and London, as well as a large number of expensive artworks.