The Ministry of Finance has alerted the general public of a fraudulent scheme that has exploited the ministry’s letterhead to send letters to the applicants of Enterprise Sri Lanka Loan Scheme.

Issuing a media release, the Finance Ministry stated that the letters sent by the scammers have demanded the applicants to pay a certain percentage of the total amount expected from the loan as a basic advance in order to release the loan in full.

The fraudulent scheme is said to have been led by a fraudster named Jayampathy Karunamuni, who feigned to be the Director of the Clearance Unit of Loans of the Development Finance Department of the Finance Ministry and another under fake identity Chanda Jayasinghe along with a group of other scammers.

Under the Enterprise Sri Lanka Loan Scheme, the Ministry of Finance is only authorized to register loan applications. Apart from this the ministry neither releases loans nor makes recommendations for loans.

The Finance Ministry has stressed that it does not charge money from the general public to provide services pertaining to Enterprise Sri Lanka Loan Scheme. Loans under Enterprise Sri Lanka are only granted by state and private commercial banks, the release further read.

Accordingly, the Finance Ministry urges the loan applicants to deal with only the permanent staff members serving inside the bank premises for anything related to the loans.

The ministry has further requested the general public report to the nearest police station if any individual or a group of persons demand them to pay money saying that the loans are approved.

A copy of the fraudulent letter used by the scammers is attached herewith: