The Financial Crimes Investigation Division has arrested a 35-year-old man over the alleged transfer of roughly Rs. 24.85 billion in foreign currency out of Sri Lanka through companies that declared imports which never arrived.
The arrest was made on 22 September, Daily Mirror reported, by the FCID acting on the instructions of the Inspector General of Police following a complaint lodged at Police Headquarters. The suspect is a resident of Dam Street, Colombo 12.
The scheme
Investigators allege that 89 companies registered in Sri Lanka sent foreign currency abroad by telegraphic transfer while declaring that the money was paying for imported goods. The goods, authorities say, were never brought into the country. The man arrested this week is accused of aiding and abetting transfers worth Rs. 24.85 billion through five of those 89 companies.
Hiru News reports the transfers ran over an 11-month period beginning in December 2024. The FCID is investigating further under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Where the accounts differ
The three newsrooms that carried the story do not agree on all the particulars, and the differences are worth stating rather than smoothing over:
- The amount. Daily Mirror gives Rs. 24.85 billion; NewsFirst and Hiru both round to Rs. 24.8 billion.
- The number of companies. Daily Mirror and NewsFirst say five. Hiru says six.
- The location. Daily Mirror places the arrest in Wellampitiya; NewsFirst and Hiru say Kotikawatta. The two are adjoining localities in the Kolonnawa area east of Colombo, so this may be a difference of description rather than of fact.
Only Daily Mirror gives the suspect’s age, address and the date of arrest, and only Daily Mirror sets the case inside the wider 89-company investigation.
The same investigation, three months on
This is not a fresh case. In June the FCID arrested a 35-year-old man in Periyamulla, Negombo over the same 89-company scheme, which police then dated to transfers made between 1 January 2023 and 15 September 2025 — a window that comfortably contains the 11 months Hiru describes. That earlier suspect was reported as a resident of Wellawatte; this week’s is from Dam Street, Colombo 12. The ages match, the addresses do not, and no outlet has said whether the two are the same person.
The pattern was set out in parliament three months ago, when Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala disclosed that multi-agency probes had traced roughly US$85 million in foreign exchange fraud to bogus imports run through short-lived shell companies. The government responded on 19 June with a gazette requiring banks to assign a unique reference number to every import-related telegraphic transfer and to share importer data with Sri Lanka Customs.
Police said extensive investigations are continuing. No court date has been announced.
