Irish Police Raid Wirecard’s Dublin Offices
The investigation into Wirecard AG, the German electronic
payment transfer company, has expanded to Ireland.
The Irish Times reported the company’s Dublin offices were
raided by police at the request of German authorities.
“Following receipt of a mutual legal assistance treaty from
German authorities, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) began a
search under warrant at a financial services provider with a business premises
in Dublin city centre today, Thursday, July 9,” the GNECB press office said in
a statement .
A spokeswoman for An Garda Siochána, or “the Guards” the
national police service of the Republic of Ireland, declined to name the
financial services firm.
“Detectives attached to the Garda National Cyber Crime
Bureau are assisting GNECB during the course of the searches, which are being
conducted in an effort to obtain evidence concerning alleged fraud at the
financial institution and its subsidiaries.”
Once a $28 billion financial technology giant, the company
declared insolvency last month, the equivalent of a bankruptcy filing in the
U.S., reporting it was in debt to the tune of nearly $4 billion after it
revealed $2.1 billion went missing from two Philippines banks that Ernst &
Young said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud.
In addition, German law enforcement authorities said they
have added money laundering, balance falsification and market manipulation to
the charges facing the collapsed firm.
“We are investigating suspected money laundering,” a
spokeswoman for the Munich prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The inquiry is focused on Wirecard executives. She declined
to name the individuals, or to say how many were being probed.
Wirecard declined to comment on the investigation and
reports of the raid of its Dublin office.
This week, Wirecard executive Oliver Bellenhaus, 46, was
arrested in Munich for his alleged central role in the massive worldwide fraud
case. He managed Wirecard’s CardSystems Middle East, the largest individual
unit under Wirecard.
Former CEO Markus Braun was arrested and later released last
month on bail.
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