Police have sought public assistance to locate the director of Rainbow Garments Technologies, accused of defrauding at least 750 people of nearly Rs. 920 million through a Romania employment racket, in what becomes the largest publicly disclosed foreign jobs scam disclosed this cycle.
The Criminal Investigation Department, working with the Commercial Crimes Division, has launched an investigation into the company over the alleged scheme, Newswire reported. Investigators have identified the suspect as 54-year-old Shirley Jayawardana Amadoru, a resident of Homagama and a director of the firm. Police said he has fled the area and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact police on 071-8594910 or 011-2444172.
The Rainbow Garments case dwarfs the recent run of foreign-employment frauds in scale. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment last week arrested a Kuchchaveli man over a Rs. 4 million Canada NGO jobs racket covering seven complaints. In May, a former SLPP Pradeshiya Sabha member was held over a Rs. 21.3 million Romania scam involving 16 complaints, and earlier in April a Maharagama operator was arrested over a Rs. 10 million Albania and Canada scheme.
Romania has emerged as a recurring destination in Sri Lankan job-fraud schemes, with brokers exploiting demand for European Union work permits to extract recruitment fees from prospective migrants.
