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Reuters
- A Singaporean businessman linked to bankrupt German online payments company Wirecard faces 11 counts of falsely claiming he had nearly $ 1 billion in multiple accounts, Bloomberg reported.
- R. Shanmugaratnam, a director of a local accounting firm, claimed that he had millions of euros in various escrow accounts on behalf of the group, according to charge sheets seen by Bloomberg.
- The latest allegations follow six other letter forgery charges that misrepresented the balances of some 393 million euros ($ 461 million) held by his company, Citadelle.
- Shanmugaratnam could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine for each count if convicted, according to the Financial Times.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
A Singaporean businessman faces 11 charges for falsely claiming he had around $ 1 billion on behalf of bankrupt German fintech Wirecard, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
R. Shanmugaratnam, accused of submitting false documentation to Wirecard, is the director of a local accounting firm called Citadelle Corporate Services.
His alleged role in a multi-year fraud led to him being charged with five counts of “willfully and with intent to defraud” for fabricating letters to Wirecard subsidiaries, Wirecard UK and Ireland and Cardsystems Middle East, Bloomberg said, citing leaves of charges filed Thursday. .
The accounts did not actually have a balance for that amount.
According to the charges, the businessman falsely claimed that he had almost 378 million euros ($ 443 million) in various escrow accounts as of December 2016. In a fifth account, he claimed he had about 97.5 million euros (114 millions).
The 54-year-old businessman is the first person charged with account falsification in the Wirecard scandal.
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The latest allegations come after six other letter forgery charges misrepresenting balances of about 393 million euros ($ 461 million) held by his company, Bloomberg said. In total, the 11 charges total about 868 million euros ($ 1 billion), which is roughly half the amount that Wirecard said was “missing” on its balance sheet.
His case will be heard again by state court on November 26, the news agency reported.
Shanmugaratnam could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine for each count if convicted, the Financial Times said.
Wirecard filed for bankruptcy in June while battling a major accounting scandal that triggered a global investigation into the company’s business. The German company’s Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Singapore, accounting for approximately 45% of its 2018 revenue.
Here’s how Wirecard went from being a beloved analyst to a $ 2.2 billion accounting scandal, costing SoftBank hundreds of millions in the process.
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