Court orders forfeiture of Rs. 40 million bail bonds signed by Aravinda de Silva and his wife

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court ordered that two bail bonds of Rs. 20 million each signed by former national cricketer Aravinda de Silva and his wife, on behalf of an accused in the CID investigation into alleged bribery and money laundering linked to an Airbus deal with SriLankan Airlines, be forfeited.

The accused, Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayake, the wife of late former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena, failed to appear in court, prompting the order.

Lawyers representing the sureties told court that Rs. 20 million would be paid on Wednesday, while time was granted until October 17 to pay the remaining amount, reports said.

Background

Wijenayake was named as a suspect in the Criminal Investigation Department’s probe into alleged bribery and money laundering connected to SriLankan Airlines’ aircraft procurement deal with Airbus.

This followed a 2020 deferred-prosecution agreement between Airbus and the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office, approved by a UK court, which detailed alleged corrupt payments linked to the SriLankan Airlines deal.

Investigations alleged that US$2 million linked to the deal had been transferred to the Singapore account of Biz Solutions, a company reported to be owned by Wijenayake.

Investigators further alleged that some of the money had been diverted to an Australian bank account belonging to Chandrasena, among other accounts.

Wijenayake and Chandrasena were arrested and released on bail in 2020, after which Wijenayake is reported to have travelled overseas.

Chandrasena was remanded again in March this year amid renewed investigations into the deal.

An open warrant was subsequently issued for Wijenayake, who has since failed to appear in court.

Chandrasena was later found dead on May 8 at de Silva’s residence, with the cause of death not publicly established.