A man accused of defrauding a job seeker of Rs. 1.2 million with false promises of work in Israel has been arrested and remanded, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has said.
The arrest was made by the Police Unit of the Bureau’s Special Investigations Division. According to the Bureau’s investigation, the suspect contested the last general election from the Kalutara District and had falsely presented himself as a presidential coordinating secretary under the previous administration, Hiru News reported.
Investigators found that he built the complainant’s trust by physically accompanying him to the SLBFE head office, lending the arrangement an appearance of official sanction before the money changed hands.
He was produced before the Colombo No. 5 Magistrate’s Court at Hulftsdorp and remanded until 14 October.
Forged ministry paperwork recovered
Officers recovered a stock of forged documents prepared for the recruitment of office assistants at the Ministry of Ports and Aviation — a separate and unrelated scheme to the Israel offer that formed the basis of the complaint.
The Bureau said further findings indicate the suspect has run similar schemes over an extended period, misusing the names of senior Bureau officials.
A distinct case, not a re-file
Arrests connected to fraudulent Israel recruitment recur frequently enough that the headlines blur together, and this one should not be confused with earlier cases LankaNewz has covered.
In August, two men were arrested inside the Bureau’s premises — one of them a suspended police constable — for collecting money from job seekers bound for Israel. In September, the Bureau warned of a fake website using its name and logo to harvest personal data from applicants. Neither involved this suspect.
The identifying details of the present case are the Rs. 1.2 million sum from a single complainant, the suspect’s background as a former Kalutara district general election candidate, the false claim to a presidential coordinating secretary post, and the Ministry of Ports and Aviation forgeries.
The common thread across all three is the method rather than the offender: Sri Lanka’s regulated recruitment channel for Israel is in high demand, and the Bureau’s own name and premises are repeatedly used as props to make unlawful offers look official.
The allegations are untested
The suspect has not been named by the reporting outlet, no charges have been described beyond the remand order, and the allegations have not been tested in court. No account from him has been published.
Hiru News was the only verified newsroom LankaNewz tracks carrying its own report of this arrest at the time of writing.
Source: Suspect arrested over Rs. 1.2m Israel job scam — Hiru News, October 3.
