MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) are investigating a law office and a tour operator connected to the fraud-hit German financial services firm Wirecard AG.
“The NBI, together with the AMLC, has been looking into the financial transactions of a law office and a tour operator linked with the local operations of Wirecard in the Philippines,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Sunday.
He said the NBI targets to finish the investigation before the year ends.
Three personnel of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have been placed on preventive suspension for tampering with the records of fugitive former Wirecard chief operating officer, Jan Marsalek.
Marsalek, who was also supervising Wirecard’s operations in Southeast Asia, faked his entry into the Philippines to evade European authorities with the help of BI personnel.
Guevarra said the three BI personnel who were found to have connived with Marsalek have been formally charged and were preventively suspended.
The NBI has previously implicated immigration officer Perry Michael Pancho, assigned at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, and Marcus Nicodemus assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 in Pasay City.
The NBI added that there was no indication that Marsalek is in the country.
Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun has been arrested in Germany after resigning on accusations that he inflated the company’s balance sheet and manipulated the share price.
Two of the country’s largest banks, the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) and BDO Unibank, have denied that Wirecard has around $2 billion deposits with them.
Wirecard later claimed the supposed funds likely do not exist.