WIRECARD EX-COO’S ENTRY INTO THE PHILIPPINES FALSIFIED

Immigration records showing Wirecard’s former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek arrived in the Philippines on June 23 and departed for China the next day were falsified, Philippines Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Saturday.

Guevarra, who supervises the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said the officers who inputted the fictitious entries have been relieved of their duties and face administrative sanctions. “The investigation has now turned to persons who made the false entries in the database, their motives and their cohorts,” Guevarra told Karen Lema of Reuters.

Marsalek, 40, was fired as COO of the German firm on June 18 after auditor EY refused to sign off on Wirecard’s accounts. The company, once one of the hottest fintech companies in Europe, collapsed a week later owing creditors almost $4 billion after disclosing a $2.1 billion hole in its accounts that auditor EY said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud. The missing money was purportedly held in escrow accounts at two Philippine banks, which have denied any link with the Wirecard.

Guevarra said it was possible Marsalek could be in the country, telling Reuters, “Notwithstanding the Bureau of Immigration report, I do not totally discount the possibility that Marsalek may be in the Philippines. We are an island country, and there are backdoors through which undocumented foreigners may slip through,” he said.  Marsalek’s last verified visit to the Philippines was from March 3 to 5.