By Roy Denish
An explosive Morning Telegraph investigation uncovers how foreign-backed online lending platforms allegedly trap vulnerable Sri Lankans through extreme interest rates, digital surveillance, public humiliation, and aggressive debt collection, exposing major regulatory gaps demanding urgent state action.
The Morning Telegraph has uncovered a staggering money lending scam cutting across international borders, linking high-profile European fintech executives directly to predatory consumer finance operations exploiting thousands of economically vulnerable Sri Lankans.
An extensive global investigation reveals that Sun Finance Group, a multinational digital lending conglomerate headquartered in Riga, Latvia, is utilizing intricate corporate shielding to deploy rapid online consumer microloans characterized by astronomical compound interest and aggressive, extrajudicial enforcement. The ultimate beneficial owner of this multi-millionaire Baltic quick-credit ring is identified as prominent Latvian entrepreneur Aigars Kesenfelds. This exact network of European backers previously came under intense criminal investigation by law enforcement in Southeast Asia when operations like Cashwagon were aggressively cracked down upon in Vietnam for usurious interest rates. Following strict regulatory clampdowns and caps across Western Europe, these networks successfully shifted their capital and automated frameworks into emerging South Asian markets, establishing a deep foothold in Sri Lanka.
The investigation exposed several prominent digital doorways operating natively in the island’s digital financial market, most notably the platform www.fino.lk, alongside similar industry rivals sharing Eastern European or Baltic origins including www.cashx.lk and www.loanplus.lk managed by Aventus Group, www.oncredit.lk run by SpaceCrew Finance, www.loanme.lk under AvaFin, and www.ceyloan.lk managed by Fingular. The primary consumer brand for Sun Finance Group locally, www.fino.lk, is owned and managed by S F Group Private Limited, a local firm registered under Company Registration Number PV 00221752. Corporate filings show this local entity functions as a subsidiary of SF Treasury SG Pte. Ltd., which also registers as SF Capital SG Pte. Ltd., an intermediate holding company incorporated in Singapore, completing the chain back to the Latvian headquarters.
A critical layer of the deception involves structural misdirection via official web landings and corporate documentation. The platform www.fino.lk presents various conflicting corporate addresses, listing its legal registered office as No. 47, Alexandra Place, Colombo 7, while concurrently directing web traffic to No. 341/5, M & M Center, Level 01, Kotte Road, Rajagiriya. To build a facade of extensive brick-and-mortar retail credibility, the company advertises specific regional customer service branches, including locations at 51/F Colombo-Batticaloa Highway in Maharagama, 21 Nawala Road in Nugegoda, the Gampaha Central Bus Stand Shopping Complex, Number 127/2 Kaduwela Road in Athurugiriya, and 358 Main Street in Negombo. Similarly, competitor platforms deploy this tactic, with www.cashloan.lk under Digital Online Solutions Private Limited pointing consumers to No. 344, Galle Road, Colombo 3. Ground investigations and victim testimonies reveal that these physical storefronts are often entirely empty shells, shared virtual mailboxes, or residential spaces designed as a legal buffer. Desperate debtors attempting to visit these locations to resolve compounding disputes find no customer desks or staff, as the true operational software and collection management remain hidden.
Communication channels are identically manipulated. Fino.lk lists its primary central customer trunk line as 011 7750300, while CashX lists 011 7474111. However, consumers report these listed hotlines route exclusively to automated, one-way outbound call centers or cloud-based Private Automatic Branch Exchange software. When borrowers try to call back, the lines appear entirely disconnected, unassigned, or blocked for inbound dialing. Instead, the entire operational engine is run via hundreds of unlisted burner SIM cards and untraceable virtual Voice over Internet Protocol numbers to deploy high-volume telephone campaigns.
The underlying business model relies on automated, app-based onboarding designed to trap users. Borrowers need only submit a National Identity Card and a selfie, signing digital-first agreements using automated Short Message Service verification codes. The true financial cost is devastating, with Fino.lk implementing an Annual Percentage Rate reaching up to 1,087 percent. For example, a repeated loan of 50,000 Sri Lankan rupees over a nine-month period accumulates service fees of 310,500 rupees, culminating in a total repayment requirement of 360,500 rupees on a 50,000 rupee principal. Missing a payment instantly triggers a compounding 10 percent penalty fee tacked onto the balance on the third, sixth, eleventh, sixteenth, and thirtieth days post-default, ensuring the debt rapidly surpasses the borrower’s income.
To enforce these payments without collateral, the apps act as digital surveillance tools. When downloading the mobile app, users are forced to grant extensive smartphone permissions, including location tracking and camera access, which frequently harvests the phone’s entire personal contact list. The moment a repayment is delayed by mere hours, aggressive automated robo-calling begins, flooding the debtor’s line with dozens of disruptive calls daily. If payment is delayed further, collection agents pivot to public social shaming and character assassination, systematically dialing the borrower’s harvested contact list of family members, employers, coworkers, and neighbors. Collectors routinely build unauthorized WhatsApp groups filled with the debtor’s personal contacts, broadcasting the individual’s National Identity Card photograph alongside defamatory captions labeling them a thief or wanted criminal.
The tactics escalate directly into extreme psychological warfare and violent physical intimidation. Collection agents routinely commit legal impersonation over phone lines, pretending to be Sri Lanka Police officers, Criminal Investigation Department officials, or court magistrates, going so far as to transmit forged legal arrest warrants via WhatsApp to convince victims that imminent criminal prosecution is underway. For long-term defaults, the parent operations outsource debt recovery to localized, third-party field recovery teams. Using harvested location data, these hired enforcers track debtors to their private residences and offices, staging public disturbances to humiliate families in front of their communities. Reports made to local police stations and grassroots human rights organizations confirm that these encounters frequently spill into physical abuse, explicit threats of violence, and the forced illegal seizure of household assets, including electronics and motorcycles, entirely bypassing the courts.
This predatory shadow market has reached systemic proportions across Sri Lanka, trapping hundreds of thousands of financially vulnerable citizens left unprotected by traditional banking structures amid domestic economic hardships. Because these digital platforms register as standard information technology or general commerce businesses rather than licensed commercial banks or Non-Bank Financial Institutions, they exploit a major legal loophole, completely bypassing the Fair Debt Collection guidelines enforced by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. While the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance are currently drafting dedicated legislation to license and supervise independent moneylenders, law enforcement officials urge affected citizens to utilize formal channels. Because physical assault, extortion, and criminal intimidation are direct violations of the Penal Code of Sri Lanka, complaints should be filed immediately at local police stations against the corporate entities. Furthermore, victims facing cyber-harassment, data theft, and digital defamation via WhatsApp or short message services are advised to file formal reports with the Sri Lanka Police Cyber Crime Division or the Computer Crime Investigative Division to initiate criminal prosecution against the operators.
The Morning Telegraph strongly advises all Sri Lankans to exercise extreme caution and completely avoid downloading or interacting with these unverified digital lending mobile applications. Entrusting personal smartphone data to these platforms leaves individuals highly vulnerable to severe identity exploitation, digital surveillance, automated cyber-harassment, and predatory financial traps designed to ensure permanent, inescapable debt.
Furthermore, the scale of this international predatory operation demands immediate, decisive state intervention. The Morning Telegraph urgently calls upon the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption to exercise their full statutory authority to thoroughly investigate and completely shut down these unauthorized operations. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka must act swiftly to block the domestic banking channels, local payment gateways, and merchant accounts utilized by these platforms to prevent the illegal collection of usurious interest rates. Concurrently, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption must launch a comprehensive inquiry into how these foreign-backed holding companies successfully bypassed local financial regulatory frameworks, secured general business registrations to run shadow banking systems, and operated with systemic immunity despite thousands of consumer complaints. The regulatory loopholes allowing independent technology firms to function as unlicensed moneylenders must be permanently closed to protect the economic security, personal privacy, and fundamental human dignity of Sri Lankan citizens.
