By Shehan Chamika Silva
Colombo Chief Magistrate allowed the CID to send a CPU of a computer and two mobile phones recovered by the CID over the inquiry conducted into the alleged $20 million transfer by hacking Bangladesh Central Bank to the Moratuwa University.The CID, filing a 'B' Report in Court, informed that it had recorded five statements from alleged directors of the Shalika Foundation, Pradeep Rohitha Dumpkin (Husband of Mrs. Shalika Perera), Don. Miyurin Ranasinghe, Nishantha Nalaka, Sanjeewa Bandara and Shirani Dammika Fernando.
The alleged productions were recovered by the CID in the possession of two individuals, W.M.P. Jayadewa and M.P. Niluka Lakshmi.
The CID also said in the 'B' Report that the Japanese national Thadasi Sasaki, whose name had also come across in the inquiry, was in Sri Lanka between July 9 to August 26, 2014.
According to the CID officials, the alleged directors of the Shalika Foundation had opened a bank account on January 26, 2016 in a private bank in Bambalapitiya.
The account had been received with $19,999,977.50 amount of money through the Swift Messaging system from Bangladesh on February 04, 2016 on the purpose of a Rural Electrification up gradation project.
However, the Remittance Department in the Bank had detected errors of the transfer which made as an inward remittance and informed Bangladesh Central Bank to verify the transaction.
Later, Bangladesh confirmed a robbery happened at the Central Bank in Bangladesh Central Bank and further proceedings of the transaction were stopped.
The name of the account holder in Swift Message mis-spelled as "fandation", prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh Central Bank, which stopped the transaction.
However, according to the bank officials statements given to the CID on few occasions, after the alleged transfer of money was made, Jayadewa, Shaleeka Perera and several others had attempted to withdraw the funds.
Later, on February 12, alleged Directors of Shalika Foundation had informed the bank officials to send the amount of money to the one who sent the funds as it was not the amount of money they were supposed to receive from foreign countries.
According to the CID, the alleged individual, Jayadewa had introduced a Japan national, ‘Thadashi Sasaki’ to the Shalika Foundation directors and advised the foundation to start a bank account in order to send funds from foreign countries for charity purposes.
Earlier, the court imposed a travel ban on the six directors of the Shalika Foundation in connection with the inquiry.
The robbery was occurred when some hackers had invaded the Bangladesh Central Bank data base and defrauded $81million funds of it. Four requests to transfer a total of about $81 million to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20 million, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organisation was held up because the hackers mis-spelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation.
The complaint was lodged by the Sri Lanka Central Bank's Financial Investigation Unit in the CID on March 11 over the alleged transaction.
Further inquiry was put off for September 07.
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