Sri Lankan court orders arrests in bank fraud case
A Sri Lankan court has ordered more arrests in the National Development Bank (NDB) case involving $42 million fraud, days after four staff members were arrested and sent to remand.
The chief magistrate’s court on Thursday ordered the arrest of more employees of the NDB in what is being termed as one of Sri Lanka’s biggest bank frauds.
Four employees of the NDB were arrested early in May after the fraud was detected in April at the publicly quoted bank. The Central Bank, which has supervisory control of banks, said that customers’ deposits and individual account balances have not been affected by the fraud.
The NDB’s capital and liquidity levels remain solid, the Central Bank has assured.
The court ordered that anyone who had violated the Central Bank’s regulatory guidelines must be arrested.
A CID team of the police is investigating the case with support from the Central Bank. The staff members were suspected of having misused internal suspense accounts to do fraudulent transfers of the LKR 13.2 billion.
