Fourteen suspects who were allegedly involved in a massive financial fraud by withdrawing money from foreign credit card holders through an e-commerce application service provided by a State bank in Sri Lanka had been arrested and detained under the custody of Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

Due to this international financial fraud, the State bank had suffered a loss of Rs.263 million and the suspects had been charged under the Public Property Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provision) Act.

The CID investigating into the incident alleged that the suspects had obtained the Internet Payment Gateway (IPG) facility from the State bank through two Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) since the end of 2011. The CID said the two NGOs had received massive amounts of money as donation from foreign credit card holders for a period of one year.

The fraud had come to light after the foreign credit card holders had complained to the credit card issuers that their money had been fraudulently withdrawn by someone without their knowledge. In one instance, issuing a Chargeback Notice to the Sri Lankan bank with regard to Rs.454,251 the FIA Card Services, a representative institution of the Bank of America in USA had alleged that the relevant money transaction had taken place without its customers’ knowledge.

The CID alleged that the money transactions had taken place after preparing fake credit cards and money in question had been deposited in the bank accounts belonging to Sahana Foundation and the Women and Children Development Foundation.

The CID alleged that due to this international fraudulent transaction, the State bank had suffered a loss of Rs.263 million causing severe damages to its reputation locally and internationally.

Filing a report in connection with the incident, the CID informed Colombo Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne that it had arrested 14 suspects and held under detention orders for further questioning.

The CID suspected that through this fraudulent transaction, a massive amount of funds could be remitted to the LTTE as well. The suspects had been detained under CID custody upon a detention order by President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Minister of Defence. (Lakmal Sooriyagoda)