When money goes missing from a wardrobe at home, the person in charge knows about it, so when money goes missing from a bank, don't the bank officers assigned to it know, Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S Bodaragama questioned in court.
The Magistrate made these remarks when the case regarding the fraud of over 13 billion rupees through a general ledger account of a private bank was called.
The four suspects relevant to this incident were ordered to be remanded further until the 10th of next month by the Magistrate.
The fifth suspect in the incident was released on bail.
The Criminal Investigation Department, presenting further facts to the court regarding the incident, stated that the suspects should be remanded as investigations into this money racket are ongoing.
The lawyer appearing for the private bank stated that the bank suffered a loss of 13.9 billion rupees due to this money fraud.
At that moment, the Magistrate questioned the lawyer appearing for the bank.
"Didn't the audit reports conducted in the bank during the 2023/2024 period reveal such an outflow of money from the bank? Has it been revealed that money in the general ledger account of the bank was taken by a certain party, used for another investment, and deposited back into the general ledger of the bank by someone inside the bank?"
The lawyer then stated that no such revelation occurred.
The Magistrate stated:
"It is mentioned that the 380 million rupees said to have been transferred lastly, was transferred on the exact same day. So, did such a large amount of money not transfer like this before? Wasn't there an audit cycle system regarding that? Because when money drops in a home wardrobe, the person in charge at home knows it. When money increases in the bank's general ledger account, don't the officers coming for that know? When money goes missing, the owner must know. That process exists, but it did not operate in the bank."
The Criminal Investigation Department presented facts to the court stating that investigations are being conducted regarding another 19 accounts related to the incident. Furthermore, investigations are underway regarding money that went abroad through suspense accounts, and the officers involved in it are also being investigated.
The Computer Crimes Investigation Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department informed the Colombo Chief Magistrate during the previous court session that there are no audit reports related to the sector in question within the internal and external audit reports conducted at the bank.
The Computer Crimes Investigation Unit informed the court on the previous trial date that no audits of the relevant payment and settlement sector were included in the internal and external audits conducted by the bank, or even in the audit reports conducted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
The Magistrate ordered the progress of the investigations related to the incident to be presented to the court on the next trial date.
The case related to the incident is scheduled to be called on the 10th of next month.
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