Wirecard’s former second-in-command, Jan Marsalek, did not enter the Philippines despite immigration records indicating what happened last week, according to the country’s secretary of justice.
“We have established that Jan Marsalek did not arrive in the Philippines on June 23 based on CCTV images, airline manifests and other records,” Menardo Guevarra told the Financial Times. “The investigation has now targeted people who made false entries in the database, their motives, and their cohorts.”
Guevarra ordered an investigation last week as part of a broader investigation into the German company’s affairs after immigration records indicated that the executive, who has not been seen since the company filed for insolvency last week, He flew to the capital Manila on June 23, then left for China from the central city of Cebu on June 24.
However, doubts that he was ever in the country arose immediately after authorities said there were no CCTV images showing his arrival or departure from the two airports, and that no flight to Cebu was leaving from China on 24 of June.
Most foreigners have been banned from entering the Philippines since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Marsalek would have had to wait for the outcome of a health exam before boarding a domestic flight from Manila to Cebu.
“The immigration officials who encoded these dummy entries have been relieved and are now facing administrative penalties,” said Guevarra. “I will direct the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate this matter further and determine possible criminal liability.”
The NBI is investigating Wirecard’s affairs in the Southeast Asian country, in cooperation with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council. The investigation includes about five of the former business partners of the German company in the country.
Elsewhere, Singapore has launched a criminal investigation into two companies suspected of accounting fraud for several years on Wirecard, as the city-state expands its investigation into the insolvent German payment group.
It marks an escalation in Singapore’s criminal investigation into the company, launched last year after the Financial Times reported allegations of allegations of accounting fraud and money laundering at the group’s Asian headquarters.
A joint investigation by Citadelle Corporate Services, as well as the Senjo Group and its subsidiaries, was launched on Friday by the Police Business Department and the Monetary Authority of Singapore for “suspected falsification of accounts” and for “carrying out a unlicensed trust business. ” he said in a statement.
Wirecard claimed it outsourced payment processing to Senjo and two other partners, according to documents seen by the FT. The German group told auditors that € 1 billion in cash as a result of agreements with these partners from 2016 to 2018 were held in so-called deposit accounts managed by Citadelle as trustee.
Wirecard collapsed in insolvency last month, becoming the first member of Germany’s Dax index to do so, after revealing that € 1.9 billion allegedly managed by a second administrator in the Philippines probably never existed.
Citadelle resigned as a trustee at the time a wirecard KPMG special audit began late last year, the findings of which were released in April only identified her as “trustee one.”
The opening of the investigation follows a review by the police, MAS and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority that began after Wirecard declared insolvent and gave authorities “reasons to suspect that crimes have been committed.” . As part of the investigation, the police and MAS have acquired documents from Citadelle and Senjo and interviewed people involved in both companies.
Senjo was one of Wirecard’s three outsourcing partners and in 2018 accounted for nearly € 384 million in Wirecard’s reported total revenue of € 2 billion, according to an internal document seen by the FT. Wirecard warned investors last month that the “above descriptions” of business activities outsourced to Senjo and other partners “are not correct.”
Citadelle is controlled by R Shanmugaratnam, a 54-year-old Singaporean who served as director or secretary at some 400 companies in the city-state. He was director of the Senjo Group from its incorporation in September 2015 to November 2016.
Senjo and Mr. Shanmugaratnam have previously rejected requests to comment on their relationship with Wirecard. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Additional report by Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt
