Further report filed in US$ 2.5 million Treasury fraud investigation

By Bhagya Silva

Colombo, June 3 (Daily Mirror) - A further report regarding the incident in which a sum of US$ 2.5 million belonging to the Sri Lankan Treasury was transferred to a fraudulent party, was submitted to Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena today by the Criminal Investigation Department.

At that stage, presenting facts on the progress of the investigation, investigating officers informed court that officials of the Department of External Resources, who had carried out the loan repayment process, had made the payments based on invoices received through the email address of Export Finance Australia, without making any inquiry regarding the original agreement or seeking any further information.

Investigating officers further informed court that the data from the server system relating to the said payments had been copied and that four CDs containing the data were required to be forwarded to the Forensic Computing Division of the University of Colombo for further analysis. They accordingly sought the Magistrate’s permission to do so.

The Magistrate granted permission for the said request.

The investigating officers also informed court that statements had been recorded from 42 individuals in connection with the incident. They further produced before court a copy of the post-mortem inquiry report relating to the death of Ranga Nishantha Rajapaksha, Assistant Director of the Department of External Resources, who died while under suspension in connection with the incident.

The investigating officers further informed the Magistrate that a representative from the Attorney General's Department would appear on a future date to assist court in relation to the investigation.

The case was fixed to be called again on July 8.