Officials raided his office and found documents for a consignment he had imported, including shoes, lighters and perfumes, for which he was ordered to pay a Rs. 200 million fine.

However, he had got a particular top customs official to reduce the payment to Rs. 50 million, paid it and got the goods released, say customs sources.

When contacted, customs spokesman Leslie Gamini said he could not comment on this particular incident, as there were many divisions conducting investigations.

He said a customs official has the power to decide a fine as per provisions in the customs ordinance.

However, reports reaching Sri Lanka Mirror say one of the documents found from Akram was about a payment of Rs. 10 million he had made to a top official of the customs revenue task force.