WASHINGTON — An investigation led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), Washington, D.C. subject workplace led to a responsible plea by a former Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S. immediately for diverting and trying to embezzle funds from the federal government of Sri Lanka. Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya, 61, of Arlington, Virginia tried to misappropriate $332,027 through the Sri Lankan authorities’s 2013 buy of a brand new embassy constructing in Washington, D.C.
Wickramasuriya served as ambassador for the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the USA and to Mexico from 2008 to 2014. He pleaded responsible within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia to a cost of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The cost carries a statutory most of 5 years in jail and potential monetary penalties.
In response to courtroom paperwork, from 2012 via November 2013, Wickramasuriya devised a scheme to defraud the federal government of Sri Lanka throughout its 2013 buy of a brand new embassy constructing in Washington, D.C. by inflating the value of the true property transaction by $332,027 and, at closing, diverting these funds from the federal government to 2 firms which had no function in the true property transaction. At and after the January 2013 closing, Wickramasuriya directed these funds. Later in 2013, Wickramasuriya finally had an equal quantity of funds be redirected again to authorities accounts, leaving the Sri Lankan authorities with no loss.
“Mr. Wickramasuriya tried to make use of his place of authority to defraud his personal authorities and steal from the individuals he represented,” stated Particular Agent in Cost Ray Villanueva of HSI Washington, D.C. “He didn’t count on the American authorities to become involved and name on HSI Washington, D.C. to research. Immediately he begins the method of paying for his crimes.”
In 2015, HSI Washington, D.C. opened an investigation, which resulted within the indictment of the previous ambassador on a number of legal costs to incorporate wire fraud, cash laundering, and making a false assertion on an immigration software.
Particular brokers from HSI Washington, D.C. traveled to Sri Lanka in 2016 to be able to receive information and conduct interviews. Primarily based on data largely supplied to the Sri Lankan authorities by HSI DC, the Sri Lankan Monetary Crimes Investigative Division arrested Wickramasuriya for cash laundering exercise.
Wickramasuriya has since returned to the USA whereas on bail. Particular brokers interviewed Wickramasuriya in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2017. HSI led the investigation with some help from the FBI.
On April 1, Authorities introduced that Wickramasuriya pled responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The announcement was made by U.S. Lawyer Matthew M. Graves, Raymond Villanueva, Particular Agent in Cost, Washington, D.C. Discipline Workplace, Division of Homeland Safety, Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), and Wayne A. Jacobs, Particular Agent in Cost of the FBI’s Washington Discipline Workplace Legal Division.
HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), liable for investigating transnational crime and threats, particularly these legal organizations that exploit the worldwide infrastructure via which worldwide commerce, journey, and finance transfer. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 staff consists of greater than 7,100 particular brokers assigned to 220 cities all through the USA, and 80 abroad areas in 53 international locations. HSI’s worldwide presence represents DHS’s largest investigative regulation enforcement presence overseas and one of many largest worldwide footprints in U.S. regulation enforcement.