May 2, 2007

NEWS: Sri Lanka Will Cooperate With Scam Probe

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement yesterday saying that it intended to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigations by the British authorities into a multimillion dollar credit card scam throughout Britain, which may possibly be funding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Foreign Ministry Public Communications Director General Ravinatha Aryasingha told British newspaper the Daily Mirror yesterday that the Ministry was to “extend [its] fullest support” to British efforts to ascertain the extent of the involvement –if any- of the notorious antigovernment gang into the scam.

Aryasingha’s statement to the Daily Mail did not, however, detail what kind of support the Sri Lankan authorities intended to provide to the British embassy. Aryasingha also stated that, since the LTTE’s activities were banned by the British government in 2001, this investigation was the first affirmative action by authorities against the group. Aryasingha added that the Sri Lankan government had been involved in attempting to attract the attention of foreign governments to Tiger activities in their respective countries for a long period of time. The start of the British investigation can be seen as that mission being a success, he said. The manhunt will open the eyes of other nations as well, he suggested – especially those where a high concentration of Sri Lankan Tamils live.

The scam believed to be the work of the LTTE involves skimming credit card numbers and later cloning the cards to extract cash over a set period of time. The scamsters typically withdraw small amounts, as not to immediately alert the owner of the account. The LTTE is very well organized, and might be using the funds garnered from such a large-scale scheme to fund anti-government activities.


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