MP Ravi Karunanayake has requested an immediate investigation into the large-scale foreign exchange fraud of one billion US dollars revealed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
In a letter to the Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance, the MP points out that since this financial fraud directly affects the economic foundation of the country, the responsible parties should be summoned before the Committee on Public Finance (COPF).
The President had previously revealed that this fraud has been going on since 2024 and that it has been carried out through a network of sending money abroad by submitting false documents without importing goods.
Furthermore, MP Ravi Karunanayake points out that Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala has also confirmed that Rs. 12.89 billion has been transferred abroad through 953 illegal transactions through 105 fake companies registered in the country.
He points out that this is a financial crime and such acts that destroy the country’s economy cannot be taken lightly. He asks in his letter what the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s Banking Supervision Department and the Financial Intelligence Unit did until such a huge amount of money was transferred out of the country through 26,108 fraudulent Telegraphic Transfers (TT) through 227 accounts in 13 commercial banks over a period of two years.
The MP proposes that the Governor and senior officials of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Controller General of Imports and Exports and the Director General of Customs, and the Chief Compliance Officers of the 13 commercial banks identified as involved in the fraud be immediately summoned before the committee to inquire into the facts of this systemic collapse.
MP Ravi Karunanayake also points out in the letter that this devastation has occurred as a result of the Central Bank not paying due attention to the warnings he gave in 2025 about tax evasion and foreign exchange fraud through unregulated financial instruments such as cryptocurrencies.