Lanka's former envoy faces jail term and fine in US

Jaliya Wickramasuriya pleads guilty to embezzling US$ 332,027 while buying new embassy building

Jaliya Wickramasuriya, Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador in Washington, DC, has pleaded guilty to diverting and attempting to embezzle US$332,027 from the Sri Lanka Government and money laundering among other criminal charges during the purchase of a new embassy building.

He will be sentenced on July 20 this year. The offence carries a maximum statutory five-year jail term plus a fine.

According to court documents, from in or around late 2012 through

November 2013, Mr Wickramasuriya devised a scheme to defraud the Government of Sri Lanka during its 2013 purchase of a new embassy building in Washington, DC, by inflating the price of the real estate transaction by $332,027 and, at closing, diverting those funds from the Government to two companies which had no role in the real estate transaction, a statement from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

At and after the January 2013 closing, Mr. Wickramasuriya directed these payments. Later in 2013, heultimately had an equal amount of funds redirected back to government accounts, leaving the Sri Lankan Government with no loss.

The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge, Washington, D.C. Field Office, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Criminal Division.

Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya, 61, of Arlington, Virginia, served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States and to Mexico from 2008 to 2014. He pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the

District of Columbia to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The charge carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison and potential financial penalties.

In October 2020, attorneys representing the US Government contested Mr Wickramasuriya’s efforts to have his diplomatic immunity reinstated. It was withdrawn by the Sri Lanka Government in 2017 to assist a US criminal investigation into certain of his actions while he was Ambassador.

In a filing before court, they said: “The Defendant’s argument that he enjoys residual immunity because the purchase of the new embassy building was performed in the exercise of his functions completely misses the point. While actions legitimately related to the purchase of a new embassy building would very likely be considered part of the official functions of a diplomat, the fraud and money laundering at issue here cannot be considered part of the Defendant’s official diplomatic functions.”

His official responsibilities regarding the purchase of a new embassy building also did not require, and were not furthered in any way, by misstating the purchase price of the building and the fraudulent activity to arrange transfer of the excess amounts for his own benefit, they said.

Mr Wickramasuriya was indicted by a grand jury in May 2018 on two counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of visa fraud. He was brought before the US District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2019 to answer the criminal charges. He initially pleaded not guilty and later lodged the motion to dismiss the indictment on grounds of diplomatic immunity. This didn’t succeed.