3 May 2021 12:04 am
By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya
An individual identified as Anan Merithazan from Trincomalee who attempted to flee to Dubai was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) by the Criminal Investigation Department sleuths over a fraudulent international money transaction to the tune of Rs.26 million, the police said.
Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said it was disclosed that the suspect was maintaining an account under his name to receive money from an unknown individual in the USA.
As per the investigation, the unknown sender in the USA has illegal access to accounts of many US citizens, and he had transferred the looted money to the said local account holder. “Then the local account holder withdraws the money, taking his commission and sends the remainder back to the ‘ghost sender’ in the US,” DIG Rohana said.
He said a private bank had alerted the CID about this and Rs.1,440 million had been sent from the USA to that particular private bank. Likewise, a number of account holders have withdrawn these monies fraudulently in many ways.
The spokesman said the suspect who was arrested by the CID was to be produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate yesterday.