News

Trump commutes sentence of major donor who lobbied on behalf of SL

Published

6 months ago

2025/06/17

Imaad Zuberi

President Trump commuted the sentence of Imaad Zuberi, a major political donor who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the obstruction of a federal investigation into a Trump inaugural committee donation, falsifying records and a failure to disclose and pay tax on US$5.65 million received from the Sri Lankan government to lobby in Washington to improve its image, The Tamil Guardian reported over the weekend.

The donor, Imaad Zuberi, 54, had been a major supporter of Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, before shifting his support to Trump after his 2016 victory.

Charges related to his lobbying work in Washington for the government of Sri Lanka, whose image he was trying to repair in Washington amid concerns about the country’s treatment of Tamils and human rights issues. He had received the bulk of the money, over a five-month period, in 2014, in particular a lobbying firm owned by Zuberi received US$2 million from the Sri Lankan government and was tasked with influencing the US government policy on Sri Lanka under the Obama administration, Zuberi himself also a large donor to the former President’s campaign. In total the Sri Lankan government has spent at least $US100 million on US lobbying firms in order to improve the country’s international image. Zuberi had also received unregistered lobbying money from the Qatari and Turkish governments and a Ukrainian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin – as revealed by court documents disclosed by the Associated Press.

Zuberi falsified records with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to conceal his lobbying for Sri Lanka and diverted most of the money to benefit himself and his wife. Of the estimated US$ 6.5 million paid by Sri Lanka to Zuberi, US$ 5.65 million is thought to have been spent on personal uses.

Zuberi was sentenced in 2021, during the proceeding he was represented by David Warrington, who is now the White House counsel. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay nearly $16 million in restitution and $1.75 million in fines.

Prosecutors depicted Zuberi as “purely a mercenary, funnelling money to whomever he believed would do his bidding” and acting as a gateway for foreign governments to influence U.S. politicians. “This case represents an egregious example of corrupt foreign influence peddling,” the prosecution wrote.

A key aspect of the case, however, has played out in secret court filings and hearings: Zuberi was a longtime US intelligence source for the US government, according to legal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the businessman’s defense.

Before sentencing Zuberi, US District Judge Virginia Phillips held a closed-door hearing where she considered a sealed document in which Zuberi’s team laid out his account of more than a decade of clandestine help he had provided to the government. Judge Phillips ultimately sided with the government’s request for a lengthy prison sentence.

Zuberi’s lawyers have argued that some of the conduct he has been charged with was linked to CIA officials who worked with Zuberi. In one instance, according to the documents they prepared, a former CIA handler of Zuberi sought and got a job on the project involving Sri Lanka that was later the basis for criminal charges against Zuberi.

After securing a role in the project, the former handler tried to persuade the Sri Lankans to buy a maritime-surveillance system that could keep watch on a swath of the Indian Ocean, according to two people familiar with the effort. At the time the US government was concerned about Chinese submarine forays. The former handler told consultants on the project that he had worked for the State Department, those people said, but a spokesperson for the Department said it has no record of his employment there.

The Sri Lankan government has previously implicated a DUP MP, Ian Paisley Jr serving under then Prime Minister Theresa May, in a lobbying scandal. He accepted two all-inclusive holidays worth £100,000 from the Sri Lankan government. The trip was funded by the Sri Lankan Ministry of External Affairs and hoped it would help secure trade deals for the state. Ian Paisley Jr, who failed to disclose the trips in the commons register of interests was reported to have had a helicopter provided for him and his family to be taken around the Island during his trips.

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News

Financial contributions received for ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund

Published

21 hours ago

2025/12/22

Priyan

The Government’s ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund, established to provide relief and support to communities affected by Cyclone Ditwah, continues to receive financial contributions on a daily basis.

Accordingly, the Containers Transport Owners Association made a financial contribution of Rs. 1.5 million, while the Association of SriLankan Airlines Licensed Aircraft Engineers contributed Rs. 1.35 million to the Fund.

The respective cheques were formally presented to the Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday (19).

The occasion was attended by W. M. S. K. Manjula, Chairman of the Containers Transport Owners Association, together with Dilip Nihal Anslem Perera and Jayantha Karunadhipathi.

Representing the Association of SriLankan Airlines Licensed Aircraft Engineers were Deshan Rajapaksa, Samudika Perera and Devshan Rodrigo handed over the cheque.

News

UNICEF representatives and PM discuss rebuilding schools affected by the Disaster

Published

21 hours ago

2025/12/22

Priyan

A meeting between Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and a delegation of UNICEF representatives was held on Saturday, (December 20) at the Prime Minister’s Office.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister explained the measures taken by the Government to ensure the protection of the affected student community and to restore the damaged school system, as well as the challenges encountered in this process.

The Prime Minister stated that reopening schools located in landslide-prone areas would be extremely dangerous. Accordingly, the Government is focusing on identifying such schools and relocating them to suitable locations based on scientific assessments.

The Prime Minister further noted that financial assistance has been provided to students affected by the disaster, enabling parents to send their children back to school without an additional financial burden. Emphasizing that school is the safest place for children after their homes, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that the school environment would help restore and improve students’ mental well-being

The Prime Minister also highlighted that attention has been given to several key areas, including the relocation of disaster-affected schools, restoration of school infrastructure, merging and operating certain schools jointly, facilitating teaching and learning through digital and technological strategies, and providing special transportation facilities. She emphasized that the Government is examining these issues and is committed to finding long-term solutions.

The UNICEF representatives commended the Government’s commitment and the initiatives undertaken to restore the education sector and assured their support to the Government. Both parties also discussed working together collaboratively on future initiatives.

The meeting was attended by the UNICEF representatives to Sri Lanka Emma Brigham, Lakshmi Sureshkumar, Nishantha Subash, and Yashinka Jayasinghe, along with Secretary to the Ministry of Education Nalaka Kaluwewa, Director of Education Dakshina Kasturiarachchi, Deputy Directors Kasun Gunarathne and Udara Dikkumbura.

(Prime Minister’s Media Division)

News

NMRA laboratory lacks SLAB accreditation

Published

22 hours ago

2025/12/22

Thilina Walpola

Dr. Sanjeewa

Drug controversy:

“Setting up state-of-the-art drug testing facility will cost Rs 5 billion”

Activists call for legal action against politicians, bureaucrats

Serious questions have been raised over Sri Lanka’s drug regulatory system following revelations that the National Medicines Regulatory Authority’s (NMRA) quality control laboratory is not accredited by the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB), casting doubt on both the reliability of local test results and the adequacy of oversight of imported medicines.

Medical and civil rights groups warn that the issue points to a systemic regulatory failure rather than an isolated lapse, with potential political and financial consequences for the State.

Chairman of the Federation of Medical and Civil Rights Professional Associations, Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa, said the controversy surrounding the Ondansetron injection, which was later found to be contaminated, had exposed deep weaknesses in drug regulation and quality assurance.

Dr. Sanjeewa said that the manufacturer had confirmed that the drug had been imported into Sri Lanka on four occasions this year, despite later being temporarily withdrawn from use. The drug was manufactured in India in November 2024 and in May and August 2025, and imported to Sri Lanka in February, July and September. On each occasion, 67,600 phials were procured.

Dr. Sanjeewa said the company had informed the NMRA that the drug was tested in Indian laboratories, prior to shipment, and passed all required quality checks. The manufacturer reportedly tested the injections against 10 parameters, including basic quality standards,

pH value, visual appearance, component composition, quantity per phial, sterility levels, presence of other substances, bacterial toxin levels and spectral variations.

According to documents submitted to the NMRA, no bacterial toxins were detected in the original samples, and the reported toxin levels were within European safety limits of less than 9.9 international units per milligram.

Dr. Sanjeewa said the credibility of local regulatory oversight had come under scrutiny, noting that the NMRA’s quality control laboratory was not SLAB-accredited. He said establishing a fully equipped, internationally accredited laboratory would cost nearly Rs. 5 billion.

He warned that the failure to invest in such a facility could have grave consequences, including continued loss of life due to substandard medicines and the inability of the State to recover large sums of public funds paid to pharmaceutical companies for defective drugs.

“If urgent steps are not taken, public money will continue to be lost and accountability will remain elusive,” Dr. Sanjeewa said.

He added that if it was ultimately confirmed that the drug did not contain bacterial toxins at the time it entered Sri Lanka, the fallout would be even more damaging, severely undermining the credibility of the country’s health system and exposing weaknesses in health administration.

Dr. Sanjeewa said public trust in the health sector had already been eroded and called for legal action against all politicians and public officials responsible for regulatory failures linked to the incident.

by Chaminda Silva ✍️