Wirecard Linked To Mafia Money Laundering
Scandal-plagued German FinTech pioneer Wirecard counted
among its payments processing clients an online casino that laundered money for
an arm of “one of Europe’s most dangerous mafia organizations,” the Financial
Times reported on Monday (August 3).
The paper cited documents and “Italian legal sources” in its
story about the organized crime syndicate ’Ndrangheta and CenturionBet, an
online gaming company based in Malta.
The Financial Times reported that Wirecard’s relationship
with CenturionBet ended in 2017, “when its gambling license was suspended by
Maltese authorities and it ceased trading after an anti-mafia raid that saw 68
people arrested.” The FT added: “Since then, more than 30 people have been
sentenced for mafia-related crimes linked to the case.”
Wirecard declined to comment for the FT article. It is
unclear whether the bank knew its services were being used to skirt anti-money
laundering regulations, the paper reported.
Leading up to June of this year, Wirecard was a darling with
investors, trading at more than 100 euros per share. Then the company admitted
that more than $1 billion in assets probably didn’t exist and filed for
bankruptcy. The stock crashed to around 2 euros per share.
On June 18, Founder Markus Braun resigned. A week later,
Braun was arrested in Germany and released on €5 million bail. He is charged
with fraudulently inflating earnings.
According to the Financial Times, the ’Ndrangheta group,
from Southern Italy, engages in murder, extortion, money laundering and
large-scale drug smuggling, and has collaborated in its work with Central
American drug cartels. The European police network Europol says ‘Ndrangheta is
also involved in trafficking illegal firearms.
‘Ndrangheta operates from the Calabria region in Southern
Italy. Calabria, only a few miles by water from Sicily, is poorer than much of
Italy, and occupies what would be the toe if Italy were a boot.
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