Spiriting away foreign exchange in billions:

Customs bare biggest forex fraud

Keerthi MENDIS

An international racket involving the spiriting away of valuable foreign exchange owned by Sri Lanka to certain countries has been busted by the Sri Lanka Customs Department.

Investigations revealed that this is the biggest ever foreign exchange fraud committed in Sri Lanka in recent times, said Director General of Customs G H G Athula Lankadeva.

The racketeers involved has remitted large amounts of foreign exchange to a Middle East Country through a certain foreign bank without imprinting any items at all to compensate the foreign exchange involved. The racket had been carried out in the name of fictitious garment factory in Kollupitiya and a textile firm in Mutwal. Investigations revealed that no such institutions existed at the addresses given by the racketeers.

Two suspects including the manager of the foreign bank arrested in this connection have been remanded till January 13.

The other suspect said to be an importer had opened an account at the foreign bank using a forged identity card. He had however imported nearly 100 container loads of goods last year legally. Lankadeva said according to conservative estimates the racketeers have spirited away nearly Rs One billion foreign exchange but it may be even Rs 2 to 3 billion. When any customer deposited more than Rs 1 million in any Bank the bank involved should intimate it to the Central Bank according to financial regulations but this particular Bank Manager had failed to carry out this duty. Investigations are on to arrest the mastermind behind the racket.

Lankadeva said they were able to uncover this racket using a computer network set up on the instructions of the Finance Ministry Secretary.