Singapore jails businessmen over Wirecard fraud
A Singapore court has sentenced two businessmen to lengthy prison terms for falsifying documents that misled auditors into believing collapsed payments firm Wirecard held hundreds of millions of euros in bank accounts, local media reported on Tuesday.
Wirecard imploded in 2020 in Germany’s largest post-war corporate fraud after admitting that 1.9 billion euros ($2.23 billion) recorded on its balance sheet did not exist, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
According to local broadcaster CNA, Singaporean R. Shanmugaratnam, 59, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while British national James Henry O’Sullivan, 51, received a six-and-a-half-year jail term.
The two men were found to have acted on instructions from senior Wirecard executives, issuing false confirmation letters that deliberately misrepresented to auditors that the fintech company had substantial sums held in escrow accounts at Singapore-based accounting firm Citadelle, CNA reported.
In September, Shanmugaratnam, a director of Citadelle, was convicted on 13 charges related to falsifying balance confirmation letters between 2016 and 2018. O’Sullivan, who used Citadelle’s services to establish Singapore companies, was convicted on five counts of abetting those offences.
The court did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation of the ruling. Both men are expected to appeal their convictions and sentences, CNA said.
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