Sri Lanka to seize 8 foreign accounts in Dubai: Cabinet Spokesman

Oct 15, 2015 (LBO) –Sri Lanka has found eight bank accounts in a Dubai bank belonging to powerful politically affiliated people and plans are underway to seize all the accounts, Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne told reporters on Thursday.
“We have uncovered eight accounts hidden in Dubai,” Minister Rajitha Senaratne told at a press briefing held in Colombo.

“We know who the account holders are.
But we have come to an agreement with Dubai not to talk about this in public as it disturbs the ongoing investigations. But we have taken necessary actions.
”

The minister says one account holds about 1.086 billion dollars and another holds 1.
8 billion dollars. A third account holds over 500 million dollars.
However the minister did not confirm or deny when a reporter questioned whether these accounts belong to Rajapakse family.

“We will keep the names aside,” Senaratne said.

“These are all dollar transactions.
Every dollar transaction is reported at American central bank and every transactions can be tracked down. That is what we were told by the American investigation team who came down to investigate this.
”

“But they needed time.”

These accounts were found in Dubai National Bank, he said.