President Anura Kumara Orders Expedited Probe; Deputy Minister Anil Jayantha
24-Apr-2026.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed officials to conduct an in-depth investigation into an attempted cyber fraud involving Sri Lanka’s foreign debt instalment payments due to Australia and India.
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Anil Jayantha Fernando stated that disciplinary action has been taken against two Treasury officials following the interception of funds meant for an Australian financial institution by cyber criminals.
Rejecting rumours being circulated regarding the country’s financial security, he said efforts to recover the stolen funds are currently being carried out in strict confidentiality.
Issuing a special statement, the Deputy Minister said the incident occurred when Sri Lanka was making a debt instalment payment to Australia’s export finance institution after debt restructuring. During email communications between the Treasury and the Australian institution, cyber criminals infiltrated the exchange, hacked the emails, and diverted the funds to their own bank accounts instead of the legitimate lender.
He further revealed that the same group attempted a similar fraud involving a debt payment due to India.
However, Treasury officials detected discrepancies in the bank account details at an early stage, preventing the attempt.
Following the discovery, the Treasury formally lodged complaints with the Sri Lanka Police Computer Crimes Investigation Division and the Computer Emergency Response Team, and investigations were launched.
To determine whether any Treasury officials were involved, an internal inquiry was conducted by a committee comprising two Deputy Secretaries. Based on its findings, disciplinary action has been taken against officers found to have been negligent during the communication process.
The Deputy Minister stressed that claims circulated on social media and by opposition groups are baseless. Allegations that Sri Lanka’s financial security has collapsed or that funds were transferred to accounts linked to individuals close to the government are completely false, he said.
He added that steps to apprehend the cyber criminals and recover the stolen funds are being carried out swiftly and confidentially. Since the matter is highly sensitive, releasing excessive details before investigations are concluded could enable the perpetrators to evade capture.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed authorities to expedite further investigations and urged the public not to be misled by false rumours.
