Singapore Authorities Issue First Charges in Wirecard Probe

Source: Regulation Asia Editors, Regulation Asia 2020-08-10

A director of Citadelle Corporate Services is said to have “wilfully and with intent to defraud” stated false balances held in escrow on behalf of Wirecard in 2016 and 2017.

Singapore authorities have charged an officer at a local business administration company Citadelle Corporate Services for falsifying letters to Wirecard misrepresenting balances held in escrow on behalf of the German payments company.

Citadelle was one of two companies that were said to be subject to a probe in Singapore stemming from an investigation into Wirecard, which collapsed in June after its auditor EY was unable to verify EUR 1.9 billion held in escrow by third-party partners.

Wirecard had initially claimed that a missing USD 2.1 billion had been kept in two Philippine banks. A Filipino lawyer later said he opened six euro bank accounts in the name of his law firm MKT Law, on behalf of Citadelle Corporate Services.

Citadelle was reportedly handling money for Wirecard in a trustee capacity without a licence. MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) has since placed the company on an investor alert list amid the probe.

According to charge sheets filed last month, Citadelle director R Shanmugaratnam “wilfully and with intent to defraud” stated false balances held in escrow on behalf of Wirecard in 2016 and 2017.

In March 2016, he misrepresented a balance of EUR 177.5 million in a single escrow account; and in March 2017 he misrepresented balances of EUR 47 million, 66.4 million, and EUR 30 million in three escrow accounts.

Shanmugaratnam appeared in court to face the charges on 3 July and 3 July, and has been released on SGD 150,000 bail. He faces up to 10 years in jail for each of the four charges if convicted.

Citadelle

Singapore Authorities Issue First Charges in Wirecard Probe

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