Sri Lanka: Chinese man arrested for syphoning money through illegal pyramid scam

Colombo [Sri Lanka]: The Colombo South Division Criminal Investigation Unit and the Borella Police jointly conducted a raid and arrested a Chinese man who was involved in an international-level pyramid scam while posing as an investor in the port city, Mawrata News reported.

More than 4,000 Chinese people may have been involved in this scam, according to the authorities. Additionally, it has come to light that the Undial system was used to transfer the illegally obtained funds to China.

It was also revealed that the detained Chinese national defrauded citizens of this nation in Malaysia, Singapore, and other nations by promising benefits in exchange for deposits of USD 100 or USD 200 and then depositing USD 10,000 without paying those benefits, according to Mawrata News, a Sinhala language newspaper with Sunday editions.

According to a senior police officer, the suspect Chinese national had taken 8 homes from 7 high-rise buildings in Colombo by posing as an investor in the port city and working among the Chinese people there.

The private security guard of one of the houses said that 27 Chinese nationals had left soon before the raid. There could be 300 or more Chinese nationals working for him, according to the authorities.

The Chinese suspect reported on August 19 that a gang of people broke into the home where he was living, bound his hands, and took seven laptops and 170 lakhs of rupees worth of stuff, which is equivalent to around 4 million rupees.

In this context, the Colombo South Division Criminal Investigation Unit has been given permission to conduct investigations by Senior Superintendent of Police Hasanta Marapana, who oversees Kololo Division.

The Divisional Crime Investigation Unit looked into the matter and found the vehicle close to Diyatha Uyana. The products had been stolen and hauled off in a black luxury van. The police believed that the van’s driver was involved in this heist after carefully examining how it was parked. It was discovered during further interrogation that the Chinese were the ones who had organised the crime and had given an amount of 15 lakhs, according to Mawrata News.

A second Chinese national who was present was consequently arrested there along with 30,000 illegal cigarettes, 23 phones and 7 laptops after the first man was brought into custody and taken to another apartment complex. When the van was stopped for questioning near Diyatha Uyana, it was discovered that three people who lived in the Galle area—and who were involved in the robbery—had been transported there by a cab driven by the van driver’s cousin.

Both the cab and its driver were detained. Additionally, it has come to light that these two have only ever worked as drivers.

According to the authorities, a huge number of Chinese nationals, including the suspect Chinese, are involved in this scam, and the money they make from it is sent back to China through mobile phones and the “Undial” method. It has also come to light that not many Sri Lankans are involved in this smuggling because it would be impossible to sustain the smuggling for very long if the authorities received complaints in this regard.

After being presented before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, the four accused were remanded in custody until September 9, Mawrata News reported.