Sri Lanka paid CIA agent to boost country's image - report

COLOMBO (News1st): An investigative report by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that US lobbyist Imaad Zuberi who was paid by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to boost Sri Lanka's image in the United States, was a secret agent of the Central Intelligence Agency. Who is Imaad Zuberi? Zuberi was commissioned by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 2014 to boost Sri Lanka's image in the US. How much was paid to Imaad Zuberi to lobby for Sri Lanka? The Central Bank of Sri Lanka agreed to pay Zuberi 6.5 million USD. This is approximately Rs. 1.31 Billion. What happened to Imaad Zuberi in the US? In February 2021, Imaad Zuberi was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion, foreign influence-peddling and campaign finance violations. The payments made by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to Zuberi to boost Sri Lanka's image were done without any approval from the Cabinet or Parliament. The Wall Street Journal one of the oldest and popular newspapers in the US, citing legal documents from the proceedings against Imaad Zuberi, reported that he was a mole of the US Central Intelligence Agency. Who paid Sri Lankan taxpayers money to a CIA agent in the US? The payment was done by the governor of Central Bank at the time, and the current State Minister of Finance and Capital Market and Public Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivad Cabraal. Is this the only deal with Sri Lanka that Zuberi was involved in? No. According to the report on the Wall Street Journal a former handler of CIA agent Zuberi had convinced Sri Lanka to buy a maritime surveillance system that could keep watch on a swath of the Indian Ocean. This was at a time in which the US Government was concerned about Chinese submarine attacks.