A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of US$916,537 held at the state-owned Bank of Ceylon and its return to Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank, the bank from which the money was stolen in a major international cyberattack.
Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasekara directed that the funds, valued at more than 270 million Sri Lankan rupees, be released to the Taiwanese bank. Additional Solicitor General and President’s Counsel Sudarshana Silva told the court that the Attorney General’s Department had no objection to returning the money to the bank. The amount being released at this stage is the principal sum, while the court is expected to receive further submissions concerning interest accumulated on the funds.
The case was brought before the court following a special request from Far Eastern International Bank. The Attorney General’s Department said legal proceedings against suspects connected to the incident would continue. Four suspects who were arrested in connection with attempts to obtain money transferred to Sri Lanka through the cyber fraud have since been released on bail.
They are Shaleela Munasinghe, a former chairman of Litro Gas; Janaka Chaminda Nammuni; Chulapala Lalindra Silva; and Bandula Weerawardena. The case against the four suspects is scheduled to be taken up again on 14 October.
The funds held by the Bank of Ceylon had remained under judicial custody for several years. Their return follows an investigation into an international operation in which hackers infiltrated the computer systems of Far Eastern International Bank in Taiwan in 2017 and used malicious software to initiate unauthorised transactions.
According to the case background, the attackers used the international SWIFT banking network to transfer nearly US$60 million to accounts in several countries. More than US$2.1 million was transferred into accounts in Colombo. When suspects attempted to withdraw the funds through banks in Sri Lanka, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested them and took steps to secure the money.
The Sri Lankan proceedings form part of the wider investigation into the movement of funds generated by the cyberattack. The court’s latest order concerns the US$916,537 retained in Sri Lanka and identified as belonging to the Taiwanese bank.
The incident had previously been described as an international money-laundering investigation following suspicious transfers detected by the Bank of Ceylon. Contemporary reporting said police acted after the bank reported a suspicious transfer of US$1.2 million from Far Eastern Bank into one of its accounts, followed by an attempted withdrawal of part of the money by one of the suspects.
Shani Abeywardana, then a director of the CID, told Reuters that police had arrested suspects after receiving information from the Bank of Ceylon about the suspicious transaction. He said investigations and questioning had established a connection with the hacking operation in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Focus Taiwan, citing Far Eastern International Bank, reported at the time that malware had been planted in the bank’s computer system and used to move funds from customers’ accounts to foreign destinations, including Sri Lanka, Cambodia and the United States. The bank had reported the computer-system infection to Taiwan’s financial regulator.
