Update: Names of bank officials who smuggled a billion dollars out of the country revealed

The Colombo Additional Magistrate has ordered the remand of four managers from four leading private commercial banks in the island, who were accused of being involved in a large-scale racket of illegally taking out of the country an amount of foreign exchange close to one billion US dollars under the guise of importing goods, until August 20th.

These suspects, arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department, were remanded after being produced before Colombo Additional Magistrate Liyan Warusawithana. Those remanded were Umesh Randika of Sampath Bank, Shiran Mario of Seylan Bank, Dharmalingam Prashanth of Union Bank, and Amila Udara of NDB, also known as Nations Trust Bank.

These investigations have commenced based on a complaint received that foreign exchange had been sent out of the country through a money exchange institution located in the Fort area, without actually importing any goods into Sri Lanka. Preliminary investigations have confirmed that they had acted to fraudulently send millions of dollars from the country's reserves abroad by misusing banking facilities.

Senior State Counsel Oswald Lakshman Perera, appearing for the Police Financial Crimes Investigation Division, stated before the court that further extensive investigations are underway to identify the correct method by which the money was sent abroad and other individuals involved in this racket. He further emphasized that if the suspects are granted bail at this stage, it would severely impede the investigations, and therefore they should be remanded, and that several more suspects related to the incident are yet to be arrested.

Although the lawyers appearing for the suspect managers requested the court to release their clients on bail, the Magistrate, after considering the facts presented, rejected the request. Accordingly, the Magistrate who remanded the suspects, ordered the police to submit a further report indicating the progress of the ongoing investigations.