Sri Lanka’s daily Sunday Times has uncovered about alleged corruption on the purchase of MiG-27s from Ukraine. A three-year investigation by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) into the procurement of MiG-27 fighter jets for the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has bared some details. A document signed between Ukraine’s arms export company Ukrinmarsh and the Sri Lanka Air Force has turned out to be a fraudulent one. It was supposed to be a Government-to-Government agreement over the purchase of the fighters.

The FCID has said that the Ukrainian Prosecutor General has confirmed that there has been a financial misappropriation in the deal. Funds from the SLAF have gone to Bellimissa Holdings Limited. This company, only had an office address, with a chair and a table, in London. From there, the funds have been forwarded to a secret account in the British Virgin Islands where the company had been incorporated. FCID investigations have revealed that Dmitry Alexandrovich Perugudov, then a Director of Ukrinmarsh, had signed on behalf of Ukrinmarsh. He had fled Ukraine thereafter. The Ukrainian authorities tracked him down at a Paris address and arrested him.

In reality, the agreement with Ukrinmarsh has been with the Singapore based D.S. Alliance, which had supplied MiG-27 fighter jets to the SLAF earlier too. D.S. Alliance Managing Director Lee Than Soo has been the main player in Bellimissa Holdings Ltd.

In 2006 four MiG-27s were bought from Ukraine to replace two lost in crashes and the one lost in the attack on the airport.