Sri Lankan authorities have uncovered a large-scale foreign exchange fraud in which the equivalent of about US$85 million was transferred overseas under the guise of importing goods that never arrived in the country, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament on Tuesday.
Presenting findings from a multi-agency probe that involves the Police, the Central Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and Sri Lanka Customs, the minister said organised groups had registered numerous companies and used telegraphic transfers (TTs) to remit funds to foreign entities while falsely claiming to be importing goods.
One investigation revealed that a single company had transferred Rs. 12.89 billion through 953 transactions to 256 companies in 26 countries, resulting in an outflow of US$42.7 million. Investigators found no goods corresponding to those payments had been imported into Sri Lanka, Wijepala said.
A second investigation, opened off the back of a separate narcotics probe, uncovered another company that allegedly transferred around Rs. 13 billion overseas through four bank accounts while claiming to be importing hardware, bathroom fittings and gold products. Authorities found no such imports had taken place. The transactions are estimated to have involved a further US$43 million.
A third investigation launched on information from Sri Lanka Customs found that between 2023 and 2025, funds had been transferred abroad through 26,108 TT transactions using 227 bank accounts across 13 banks. Investigators identified 105 local companies linked to the operation, many of which had been registered in the names of a small group of individuals and closed within months of being set up.
The minister said preliminary findings suggest shell companies were repeatedly created and used to move funds abroad before being shut down, raising concerns about possible money laundering, foreign exchange violations and links to other criminal activities.
The government has already moved to tighten oversight, Wijepala said, including requiring import-related companies to register with Sri Lanka Customs and use Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) for import activities. He also told parliament that legislation would be amended to once again classify foreign exchange control violations as predicate offences that can be investigated under anti-money laundering laws — a step back toward the pre-liberalisation framework that allowed financial intelligence units to treat unauthorised outflows as criminal matters.
The minister said investigations are ongoing and that authorities are examining whether public officials or banking personnel may have failed to discharge their oversight responsibilities.
The disclosure is the first formal parliamentary acknowledgement of a structured trade-based money-laundering channel of this scale and lands as the Central Bank tightens conversion rules on bona fide exporters, forcing them to convert residual foreign currency holdings into rupees within 30 days. It also follows the NDB Rs. 13.2 billion fraud disclosure and the Treasury US$2.5 million cyber heist earlier in the cycle, both of which involved financial-system actors and have so far drawn CID arrests, a CIABOC referral and ongoing parliamentary scrutiny via the Committee on Public Finance.
