A Colombo Fort Magistrate has imposed overseas travel bans on five officials of the Public Debt Management Office as investigations intensified into a $ 2.5 million Treasury payment diverted to a fraudulent account.

The Criminal Investigation Department told court that the transfer, made as part of a foreign loan repayment to an Australian Government agency, was executed after officials acted on an email sent from a spoofed domain closely resembling the legitimate address.

Investigators said the genuine domain, exportfinance.gov.au, had been altered to exportfinance.av.com, enabling the payment to be redirected. The transaction was processed despite a prior warning issued by the firm responsible for maintaining the government’s email system.

The CID informed court that the payment was authorised after the warning had already been received, raising questions over verification procedures and internal controls.

The five officials subject to the travel ban were directly involved in the email correspondence linked to the transaction, court was told. The Magistrate also granted permission for investigators to obtain and examine their bank account details.