The Airbus Scandal - How the bribe moved around Sri Lankan circles

Colombo (News 1st) - The SriLankan Airlines - Airbus re-fleet deal, the 2013 purchase of 10 Airbus aircraft for the national carrier had led to much controversy solely because of the fraud and corruption surrounding it. Airbus aviation group had offered a 16 million US dollar bribe of which 02 Million US Dollars was obtained and then transferred to various parties. After the massive bribes were in obtained in secret, the UNP led-Government decided to terminate the purchasing deal after paying 98 Million US Dollars to Airbus and the loss to the country was approximately 14,000 Million Rupees. The aerospace giant was investigated by French and British authorities over suspected corruption dating back several years and in the States over failure to comply with export rules. The UKs Serious Fraud Office reported Airbus hired the wife of a SriLankan Airlines executive as its intermediary in connection with aircraft negotiations and offered a bribe of 16.84 Million US Dollars , which is approximate north of 3000 Million Rupees. 02 Million US Dollars of the promised amount was deposited to the Singapore Bank Account of a company known as BIZ Solutions, registered in Brunei under the name of Priyanka Wijeynayake, the wife of Ex-SriLankan CEO Airlines Kapila Chandrasena. 02 Million US Dollars is approximately north of 400 Million Rupees. Kapila Chandrasena and his wife are in remand costody for money laundering charges and the case is taken up in the presence of Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake. When the matter was taken up initially, the Criminal Investigations Department informed court, money was transferred from the BIZ SOLUTIONS bank account in Singapore to Kapila Chandrasena's accounts in Australia on two separate occasions. In court yesterday, detectives revealed, money was transferred to several other parties from the BIZ SOLUTIONS account under the name of Priyanka Neomali Wijeynayake. Accordingly, 800,000 US Dollars was transferred to the Singapore Bank Account of a BVI company known as SABER VISION HOLDINGS in 2014, on two separate occasions. Investigations revealed the company is owned by Sri Lankan Businessman Nimal Hemasiri Perera and the transferred amount is just north of 140 Million Rupees. In 2014 again, another sum of 160,000 EUROS was transferred from BIZ SOLUTIONS to the account of a Sri Lanka based company, by the name of SL AGRO - and this is around 30 Million Rupees. SL AGRO does not have a registered address and it has only two directors - brothers - whose identities were not revealed to court. Yesterday, the CID said a statement was recorded from one of the brothers and the other was expected to provide a statement today. The second brother was a no-show even at 04:30 this evening.