Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has told Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance that approximately US$715 million — around Rs. 214.7 billion — was moved out of the country under the guise of importing goods, without any goods ever arriving.
Senior Deputy Inspector General Asanga Karawita told the committee that Sri Lanka Customs had flagged the transfers in three reports submitted to the Inspector General of Police in January, February and March this year, NewsFirst reported. Altogether, 105 companies were found to have remitted the money overseas through telegraphic transfers between January 2023 and March 2026.
Investigators found that 227 bank accounts and nearly 24,300 telegraphic transfers were used to move the funds, and that 13 major state and private banks had processed the transactions. Only 55 individuals were linked to all 105 companies, according to the CID.
One key suspect, said to own 43 of the companies that together transferred around US$43 million, has been arrested and remanded. The CID alleges he collected money from brokers and used forged invoices and fabricated customs documents to support the transfers, in some cases with the help of certain bank officials.
The investigation has also uncovered alleged links to an international narcotics network, with funds belonging to a major drug trafficker based in Dubai routed to the United Arab Emirates through the same mechanism. Two of three principal Dubai-based suspects have been brought back to Sri Lanka with Interpol assistance and remanded.
The Daily Mirror reported that the probe stems from allegations that as much as US$1 billion may have been sent abroad as advance payments for imports that never materialised.
