Investigators to visit Sri Lanka over hacked reserves

A team of officers of the International Intelligence Unit is supposed to arrive today in Sri Lanka to conduct investigations in relation to the financial fraud of one million and one hundred and one dollars of the New York Reserve Bank, which fraud is alleged to be the

It has been found that two parties who own bank accounts in Sri Lanka and the Philippines have carried out this fraud in connivance by getting together with a group of hackers. Finances at an account in the New York Reserve Bank belonging to the Central Bank of Bangla Desh has been swindled in this manner. Connections have been made across the internet and the monies have been transferred to two accounts in Sri Lanka and the Phillipines and a part of it has been credited to an account of a non-governmental organisation by the name of Shalika Foundation in Sri Lanka. After the International Police informed the Sri Lankan Police about this, a court order had been obtained to inspect accounts of the said Foundation. Further, courts have prohibited foreign travel to 6 of the directors of the Foundation.

Officers of the International Intelligence Unit of Bangla Desh and a team of officers of Bangla Desh Police are expected to come over to Sri Lanka today (6) to launch a further investigation pertaining to this transaction. The investigations to be conducted in this connection is expected to comply within the prevailing legal framework in existence of Sri Lanka and the Philippines and therefore further proceedings would take place after a study conducted here, it was reported. It is a lady by the name of one Shalika Perera who is the creator of the non-governmental organisation called Shalika Foundation. It is understood that various social schemes such as low-cost houses being constructed has been launched by them. What Mrs. Shalika says in relation to the point where a sum of 200 lakhs being credited to their account in one and the same instance is that a sum of money requested by Jaica, a Japanese Aid Programme for their projects is equivalent to the said sum of money and according to what she thinks, that sum of money has been credited in this manner. However when the police got across to Jaica Institute what they say is that such a sum of money has not been transacted and that they even are not aware of a Shalika Foundation as such.

On the other hand what Mrs. Shalika had mentioned was that their organisation is a genuine one and that they have no reason to engage in cheating. What the International Intelligence Unit say is that the hackers had tried to swindle a sum of close upon a billion dollars belonging to the American Bank; but in the end they had been successful in crediting only 20 million to Sri Lanka and 81 million to the Phillipines. Further investigations are underway regarding this incident.