Minister of Public Security Ananda Wijepala told Parliament that more than US$85 million had been illegally transferred out of Sri Lanka through a large-scale fraud scheme that exploited the Telegraphic Transfer (TT) system under the guise of importing goods.

According to the Minister, investigations conducted jointly by the Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Customs uncovered a network of companies that allegedly remitted billions of rupees overseas through thousands of TT transactions without importing any goods into the country. Authorities found that one company alone had transferred US$42.7 million to entities in 26 countries through 953 transactions.

Wijepala stated that the investigations also revealed links to other major financial crimes, including the alleged Rs. 13 billion NDV fraud, while several bank accounts connected to the scheme have been frozen. He further alleged that weaknesses in regulations introduced in 2017 had contributed to the rise of such financial offences by removing certain exchange control violations from anti-money laundering provisions.

The Minister said the Government has now moved to strengthen oversight by requiring greater registration and tax compliance for importers, while President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed authorities to introduce legal reforms to bring exchange control violations back under anti-money laundering laws and prevent similar abuses in the future.