The headquarters of German financial markets watchdog BaFin in Frankfurt. Photo: Bloomberg
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3091898/how-fake-philippine-immigration-records-were-used-cover Southeast Asia
How fake Philippine immigration records were used to cover tracks of ex-Wirecard executive
- Arrival records indicate that the scandal-hit German firm’s former COO Jan Marsalek passed through the Philippines late last month
- But video footage and airlines manifests confirm that he never entered the country and the officers who encoded the fictitious entries have been relieved
Security guards at the Wirecard headquarters in Aschheim near Munich, Germany. Photo: EPA-EFE
Faked immigration records in the Philippines were used to throw off authorities seeking a former executive at Wirecard, who went missing after the German firm was implicated in an accounting scandal.
Immigration records seemed to indicate that Wirecard’s former second-in-command Jan Marsalek passed through the Philippines late last month.
But video footage, airlines manifests and other records confirm that he never entered the country, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a text message on Saturday.
“The investigation has now turned to the persons who made the false entries in the database, their motives, and their cohorts,” Guevarra said.
“The immigration officers who encoded these fictitious entries have been relieved and are now facing administrative sanctions.”
One of the two immigration personnel who had been relieved was stationed at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and the other at the head office in Manila, Guevarra said separately on Sunday.
They were transferred to other units pending investigation and will be slapped with appropriate sanctions should they be found culpable, he said. A fact-finding committee is looking if other persons were involved.
Guevarra said the investigation would continue to determine whether criminal charges could be brought. The Financial Times first reported the fraudulent immigration records.
Germany issued an arrest warrant for Marsalek after he was dismissed by Wirecard on June 22 and auditors could not find about 1.9 billion euros (US$2.1 billion) in cash at the payment processing company. The whereabouts of the former chief operating officer are still unknown.
Separately, the Philippine central bank is investigating allegations that documents were forged purporting to show Wirecard had deposit accounts at two of the country’s lenders.
German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Sunday he planned to give the country’s financial markets watchdog more power in response to the scandal at Wirecard.
“I want to give BaFin more control rights over financial reports, regardless of whether or not a company has a banking section,” he said in an interview with Sunday paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Scholz said that BaFin’s protection mechanisms against accountants’ conflicts of interest must be improved.
He would propose rotating auditors to ensure more independence, and to examine whether the big accountancy companies – which apart from EY in Wirecard’s case include KPMG, PwC, Deloitte – should be both advising and monitoring one company at the same time.
He would back plans to give BaFin more funding and staff to undertake special and wider audits.
“No-one should assume it is enough to hold your breath and hope for the best,” he said. “We will have to clarify in each area what went wrong.”
Additional reporting by Reuters