[12] On 1 July 2006, Cabraal was appointed governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka by President Rajapaksa, for a period of four years.

He was accused of financial misappropriation following investment in Greek sovereign bonds which resulted in a major loss to the government during his first term.

[19][20][21][22] Cabraal assumed his second term as governor of the central bank 15 September 2021 at a time Sri Lanka was facing a major debt crisis.

[25] During his tenure, Central Bank was engaged in printing in excess of trillions of money to finance the budget and economic crisis.

[30] Having depleted foreign currency reserves and gold reserves to boost the Sri Lankan Rupee and repayment of sovereign bonds, the central bank free floated of the currency in early March which saw a 30% depreciation of the Rupee against the dollar in days following major shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

[35] The court order was issued on the basis of a case filed by political activist Keerthi Tennakoon against Cabraal regarding misappropriation and misuse of public funds which led to a massive economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

[36] Cabraal along with the Rajapakasha brothers and other senior officials were found guilty of economic mismanagement between 2019 and 2022 by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka which stated on 14 November 2023 that the respondents have breached the fundamental rights to equal protection of the law in terms of Article 12(1) of the Constitution in a fundamental rights petition filed by filed by Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) and other four activists.