The United States Government has charged Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya with two counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of immigration fraud.
This is in connection with the embezzlement of US$ 320,000 funds of the Sri Lankan government intended for the purchase of a new embassy building there.
Wickramasuriya was appointed as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States and Mexico in August 2008 by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is his first cousin.
“From around late 2012 to November 2014, the defendant Jaliya Wickramasuriya devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud the government of Sri Lanka during the purchase of the embassy, and to obtain money by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises,” according to the indictment unsealed last week by the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The embezzlement of state funds was reported by the US government to Sri Lankan authorities in 2014, which led to a request by the US that Wickramasuriya be recalled from diplomatic service in that country. While President Rajapaksa did recall Wickramasuriya, no criminal charges were filed against him by Sri Lankan authorities, nor did the Rajapaksa regime waive the diplomatic immunity that complicated efforts to charge the former ambassador in the United States.
The thirteen-page indictment filed by US prosecutors subsequent to an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit sets out the alleged criminal scheme in detail.
“Between 2008 and 2014, defendant Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya served as Ambassador from the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United States. While serving as Ambassador, the defendant also owned an operated company in Sri Lanka named Ceylon Royal Tea and Supplies, and a company in the state of Georgia named Ceylon Royal Tea and Supplies, collectively ‘Ceylon Royal Tea.”
“In 2012, the defendant was involved in selecting 3024 Whitehaven St NW, Washington D.C. as the location for the new embassy. In 2013, the defendant caused official funds from Sri Lanka to be wired to a HSBC bank account in Washington D.C., which were used to purchase the new embassy.”
“On or about January 12, 2013, the defendant prepared a memorandum in which he instructed the Title Company and Closing Attorney to disburse the unaccounted for $332,027.35 in funds to two third parties, both of which had no role in the real estate transaction. The defendant signed this memorandum.”
According to Wickramasuriya’s instructions, US$ 82,000 was to be disbursed by wire or cheque to a US based consultant company, which is not named in the indictment, but is identified in FCID B Reports as Paper Crown LLC, owned by a close Wickramasuriya associate, Vinod Basnayake. $250,000 was to be disbursed to a Sri Lankan company, described as “Sri Lankan Company C” in the indictment, which was in fact PPP International Pvt Ltd, owned by a Brendan Sosa. “On or about January 15, 2013, the defendant, using a non-embassy e-mail account, emailed this memorandum, containing the disbursement instructions for the excess funds, to the Closing Attorney.”
The disbursements to these two private companies “were not authorised by the government of Sri Lanka,” according to the indictment. On or about January 17, 2013, the Title Company successfully wired $82,027.35 from the Title Company Bank Account” to Paper Crown LLC, which was nominated by Wickramasuriya. On the same day, “the Title Company attempted to wire $250,000” to PPP International in Sri Lanka. “However, the wire was unsuccessful because an intermediary bank rejected it.”
Wickramasuriya was notified of the failed wire transfer. Thereafter, “on or about January 20, 2013, the defendant, using his personal email account, sent an email to Closing Attorney that instructed Closing Attorney to mail a cheque to Sri Lanka for $250,000” payable to PPP International.
A cheque was instead made out for $250,000 payable to Wickramasuriya directly, and mailed to the address of Ceylon Royal Tea, Wickramasuriya’s company in Sri Lanka. “Initially, the defendant’s efforts to have the cheque cashed in Sri Lanka were not successful,” the indictment reads. On or about March 19, 2013, a co-conspirator of Wickramasuriya directed the closing attorney to prepare documentation indicating that PPP International was involved in the real estate transaction so that the funds could be released to their bank account in Sri Lanka. However, this company “was not involved in the real estate transaction” according to the indictment.
Then, on or about March 19, 2013, Wickramasuriya “using his personal email account, told Closing Attorney not to send any emails regarding” PPP International to his official Sri Lankan government email account. The next day, according to the indictment, the funds were successfully received in Sri Lanka.
According to a report filed with the Colombo Fort Magistrates Court by the FCID in a connected investigation, at least Rs 18 million of the money embezzled from the embassy and laundered through PPP International was later deposited in the Sri Lankan bank account of Ceylon Royal Tea, the company owned by Wickramasuriya.
The indictment further charges that when Sri Lankan embassy officials began investigating the suspicious transfers,Wickramasuriya took steps to cover up his misdeeds. He gave embassy officials a document labeled “Addendum to the Settlement Statement,” the indictment says. “The Addendum was undated, not written on official letterhead, and unsigned by the buyer or seller of the embassy property. The Addendum detailed payments made as ‘Commission to Agents’ totaling $332,027.35. The Addendum stated that this purported commission was split evenly into two payments”
of $166,013.68 each to the respective real estate company’s of the buyer and seller. “In fact, no such commission payments totaling $332,027.35 were made” to either company, according to the indictment. The indictment further details how the former ambassador replaced the embezzled funds after his scheme had been unearthed by embassy officials.
“In or around October 2013, the defendant approached the Embassy Realtor with a request for the Embassy Realtor to receive a money transfer of approximately $332,000. Based on prior communication with the defendant, the Embassy Realtor hoped that this transfer was payment for a proposed renovation to the embassy, which needed to be changed from a residence to office space.”
After the conversation with Wickramasuriya, the indictment says, the realtor received five payments totaling $332,000. Of this sum $40,000 came from a Sri Lankan company with a note stating “Loan to Jaliya Wickramasuriya”, $125,000 came from an ‘acquaintance’ of Wickramasuriya, $32,000 from the former ambassador himself and sums of $73,265 and $61,735 respectively from two US-based companies employed by Wickramasuriya as consultants to the
embassy. A cashier’s cheque was drawn out for this total sum of $ 332,027.35 issued to ‘the Embassy of Sri Lanka,” the indictment reveals.
“The defendant personally collected the cashier’s cheque from the Embassy Realtor. The defendant subsequently deposited the cashier’s cheque into the Sri Lankan government bank account. The defendant subsequently provided the Sri Lankan authorities with a letter from the Embassy Realtor and addressed to the defendant, which stated that a cashier’s cheque in the amount of $332,027.35 was being issued to the Sri Lankan embassy as a ‘final reimbursement’. This letter was purportedly signed by the Embassy Realtor. In fact, however, the Embassy Realtor did not write or sign this letter,” the indictment exposes.
The charges in the United States are restricted to wire fraud, money laundering and immigration fraud.Wickramasuriya also faces prosecution in Sri Lankan jurisdiction in connection with the same events, for charges of criminal breach of trust and forgery, among other offenses.