Sri Lankan authorities have recovered only USD 200 of the USD 2.5 million transferred to scammers in the April cyber breach linked to the Ministry of Finance computer system, the Sunday Times reported, citing US authorities asked to trace the missing funds.

Part of the money had been traced to a bank account in Delaware, while a separate portion was linked to a bank in another US state. Authorities were informed that the Delaware account was empty, while only USD 200 remained in the second account. The recovered amount is expected to be transferred back to Sri Lanka, the report said.

If confirmed, the recovery represents less than 0.01% of the stolen funds and effectively closes the US-side tracing track without restitution. The bulk of the money had been moved on before US authorities arrived at the named accounts.

The disclosure follows a month of contested public communication. The US Embassy in Colombo denied earlier media reports that an FBI team had deployed to Sri Lanka, clarifying that only its permanent FBI Legal Attaché coordinates with local agencies. Prior reporting had outlined the international probe involving the FBI and Australian Federal Police on the AEFA-routed transactions.

The Treasury heist has produced one of the longest-running accountability threads of the cycle. Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha confirmed the breach on May 5; the Cabinet defended Treasury Secretary Suriyapperuma the same day. COPF held its finance committee probe on April 28 and Harsha de Silva framed it as a technical default risk before the government rejected that framing. The opposition has pressed parallel accountability tracks, including Faiszer Musthapha’s call for a Presidential Special Investigation Committee, Dilith Jayaweera’s “not the hackers” allegation and Free Lawyers’ 22 questions to the President. CBSL Governor Weerasinghe outlined fraud-prevention measures on May 13.

A near-empty recovery now hands the political and judicial track the burden of accountability. With the foreign trace effectively dry, the focus returns to who inside the Sri Lankan system enabled the misdirected payment instructions.

Source: Newswire (citing Sunday Times).