Former. SL ambassador pleads guilty to defrauding SL Govt.
A former ambassador for Sri Lanka pleaded guilty today to diverting and attempting to embezzle $332,027 from the government of Sri Lanka during its 2013 purchase of a new embassy building in Washington, D.C.
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 ambassador for the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 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.