The alleged cyberattack involving unauthorized access to the computer system of the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Foreign Resources and the reported misappropriation of USD 2.5 million has emerged as a prominent national concern in recent days. Alongside this, a significant volume of related content, much of it unverified and potentially misleading, has been circulating across social media platforms. This article presents a fact-checking analysis of one such widely shared claim.
Social Media Posts:
Claim 1:
The post, dated 22 April and purporting to originate from the official Facebook page of Newsfirst, alleges that the President made a statement claiming, “We have the cheque numbers from which the Australian hacker who stole USD 2.5 million from us provided USD 2 million to Mahinda Rajapaksa.”
Fact Check
Media reports here and here covering a statement issued on 22 April by the Free Lawyers organization drew significant national attention, highlighting concerns that the Sri Lankan government may have identified that a portion of the USD 2.5 million payment, from a total of USD 22.9 million due by the end of September 2025, had been misdirected to a third party, namely a computer hacker, rather than to the intended creditor country.
Neither News First nor any other media outlet has reported such a story.
We examined whether the post containing the statement purportedly made by the President had been published on the official Facebook page of Newsfirst, and found...
The Management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has noted The Management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has noted with concern the circulation of unfounded and m...