TRO funds have not reached N-E

Manjula Fernando

COLOMBO: Investigators probing the finances of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) yesterday said millions of dollars raised by the organisation annually has not reached the North and East of Sri Lanka. Millions of dollars raised by its 17 international branches annually, have vanished and there were no bank records to show that 'all or most' of the funds had been used for humanitarian activities in the North and East, a senior investigator said.

The TRO is reported to be raising over US $ 20 million a year by its very active global network. The documentary proof and audited reports provided by the Organisation to the investigators have failed to prove that these funds have been remitted to their Sri Lankan accounts.

The freezing order by the High Court at the outset of the investigation on August 29 is to expire in February and a senior official said they were certain that a breakthrough was imminent with regard to the case.

The funds of the organisation in five private banks were frozen by the court order for six months. A team comprising the CID, Attorney General's office and the Central Bank's Financial Investigation Unit officials are working round the clock on the case.

"They are meeting on a weekly basis to discuss strategies and review progress," he added. "At the moment we are pursuing several leads," another official said declining further information saying it was still premature to divulge details.

He said they were sharing intelligence with foreign law enforcement authorities and Anti-Money Laundering Units, particularly in Canada, Australia, US, France and the UK. This has led to significant breakthroughs in the investigation.

The Central Bank's Financial Investigation Unit officially began a probe on financial transactions of this internationally listed charity organisation last August after raids carried out in their offices in Canada, US and UK exposed possible links with the LTTE and funding terrorist causes. Following its investigations the UK de-listed the TRO as a charity in 2005. In many other countries its offices have been raided and shut down.

However, the TRO as with many other LTTE front organisations are said to be operating their business as usual under different names.

The investigations revealed that TRO has 'bagged' over one tenth, nearly Rs.4 billion of the total funds received for tsunami activities in Sri Lanka through the banking system. This is according to the official records of the organisation.

A sizable amount of these funds was depleted by the time the Central Bank issued the directive to freeze the accounts. From the TRO's main commitment of 639 houses only 100 had been completed for tsunami victims.