Sri Lanka, April 28 -- The Criminal Investigation Department today (28) presented facts before the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court regarding a controversial USD 2.5 million payment made by the Treasury, which was allegedly diverted to a fraudulent party.

The payment had been issued as part of a foreign loan repayment to an Australian government institution. However, investigators revealed that the funds were transferred to a fake account after officials acted on an email sent from a fraudulent domain closely resembling the legitimate address of the institution.

According to the CID, the correct domain "exportfinance.gov.au" had been subtly altered to "exportfinance.av.com," enabling the scam. Despite an earlier warning issued by the com...