Sri Lanka & Lazarus Heist
In 2016, Lazarus Group, a North Korean cybercrime group robbed 1 billion from the account of Bangladesh’s Central Bank in the Federal Bank of New York and tried to route it through the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
A Japanese middleman came to Sri Lanka, visited Tissamaharama, and met Shalika Perera, who, after several failed businesses, had started a charity and was looking for donations. He promised to give 1 billion dollars. She opened an account in Pan Asia Bank.
He had been contacted by a group to pass this money through Sri Lanka with a 1% commission. But at the last moment, they decided to send only 20 million. Shalika was asked to deposit 85% of that money in a foreign personal bank account. It’s a classic money laundering scheme.
She agreed and got 20 million in her account, but an officer at Pan Asia Bank smelled that something was fishy, as 20 million USD is a big amount for Sri Lanka. They also noticed it was sent to “Shalika Fundation”, with a spelling mistake. They started investigating and found a connection to the Bangladesh bank. She tried to protect the Japanese guy and may have had a connection to the heist. She was arrested and is now in jail.
She had a business card of the Japanese guy. He denied any prior connection to this. Investigative journalists tracked the details on the card and found a Facebook profile with the same name, with his photos at different locations. One of them was a Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka. From the cracks in the temple roof, they tracked it to Tissamaharama, where Shalika’s foundation was based.
