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(Bloomberg) – Singapore authorities charged the head of a local accounting firm with fraud for falsely claiming that his company held € 475.5 million ($ 558 million) on behalf of German payments company Wirecard AG in 2016 .
R. Shanmugaratnam, Director of Citadelle Corporate Services Pte, was charged with five counts of letter forgery “willfully and with intent to defraud” Wirecard, Wirecard UK & Ireland Ltd. and Cardsystems Middle East FZ LLC, according to charge sheets. presented. on Thursday and seen by Bloomberg News.
Shanmugaratnam falsely stated that it had approximately € 378 million in custody in various accounts as of December 2016 and € 97.5 million as of November 2016 in a fifth account, according to the charges.
The indictments follow six previous charges, related to accounts allegedly holding around € 393 million, against the 54-year-old Singaporean, the first person to be charged in the city-state for the spectacular Wirecard collapse, which has resonated widely. all the world. Together, the 11 charges cover around € 868 million in cash, roughly half the amount missing from the company, although they cover different time periods.
Wirecard filed for bankruptcy in June after acknowledging that the € 1.9 billion it had listed as assets did not exist, triggering a global investigation. Singapore is home to Wirecard’s Asia Pacific headquarters and the company had been aggressively expanding in the region, accounting for nearly 45% of the group’s reported revenue in 2018, second only to Europe.
Shanmugaratnam declined to comment on the charges through his attorney. The state court will hold another hearing on November 26.
On Wednesday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore directed Wirecard’s local entities to cease their payment activities and return all customer funds by October 14 after the company told the regulator that it cannot continue to provide wirecard services. processing payments to “a significant number of merchants.”
While Wirecard’s business in Singapore is not part of the insolvency proceedings, Trustee Michael Jaffe has tasked advisory firm FTI Consulting with assisting with the planned sale of the local unit, Bloomberg reported last month.
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