Thilini Priyamali, the owner of Thico Group, who defrauded billions of rupees from billionaires, had undertaken eight luxury foreign trips with her paramour, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) informed the court yesterday (18).
The CID informed this to the court after producing 26-year-old Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Isuru Shammika Bandara who is the paramour of 40-year-old Thilini Priyamali.
The CID submitted a report to the court and informed that the investigations revealed that Isuru Bandara who had acted as a director of Priyamali’s businesses had converted an amount of Rs. 80 million taken from Priyamali into US Dollars.
The suspect was arrested based on a complaint made by Abdul Hassan Kamal Hassan, who runs a foreign exchange centre at Bristol Street, Colombo, that he had defrauded him of 60,000 US Dollars, 100,000 Australian Dollars and one kilo of gold.
Police said the suspect had introduced Priyamali to Kamal Hassan and that he had also aided and abetted the large-scale fraud allegedly committed by her.
The suspect had recently sold a vehicle for Rs.30 million and police said a significant amount of the allegedly defrauded gold is in the possession of the suspect.
Police said the suspect had maintained a romantic relationship with Thilini Priyamali after getting to know each other through Facebook in 2019 and informed the court that they are conducting a comprehensive investigation regarding the transactions made by the suspect with Priyamali.
Meanwhile, CID said that he has appeared as her husband and she has also introduced him as her husband. It was said that Priyamali has addressed him as “Appachchi”.
The CID officials requested the court to remand the suspect as they are conducting a complex investigation into these frauds.
Accordingly, the Magistrate ordered that the suspect be remanded until today and ordered not to transfer the ‘Rexton’ type Jeep said to be in the possession of this suspect.
The case is scheduled to be taken up again today and Priyamali who is in remand custody will be produced in the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court.
