JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate certain individuals who have been linked in the scandal involving German payments company Wirecard AG, which claimed to have lost 1.9 billion euros, or $2.1 billion, due to alleged fraud.
Guevarra, in a text message to reporters, confirmed that prior to the controversy, Jan Marsalek, chief operating officer of Wirecard, reportedly arrived in the country on March 3, 2020, and left after two days.
Marsalek, who was in charge of overseeing daily operations of the company in Southeast Asia, was reportedly fired from his position and is being blamed for the financial mess.
But the DOJ secretary said, “There are some indications that he may have returned recently and may still be here.”
Thus, Guevarra said he had directed the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to conduct further investigation to confirm if Marsalek is still in the country.
Guevarra said he has instructed the NBI to coordinate with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) despite earlier pronouncement by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that the missing money of Wirecard did not enter the Philippines.
The names of two of the country’s biggest banks—BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI)—are being linked in the scandal.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno claimed that those behind the reported anomaly are only using the names of two banks to cover their tracks as initial reports showed that none of the missing $2.1 billion entered the Philippine financial system.
Both banks have denied Wirecard was their client.
Lawyer Mark Tolentino, former assistant secretary for the Department of Transportation who was sacked by President Duterte in 2018, is also being linked in the scandal.
His law firm, M.K. Tolentino Law & Business Consultancy Office admitted opening and maintaining foreign-currency deposit accounts with BDO and BPI but did not name their clients, citing absolute confidentiality required by the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.
Tolentino’s camp denied knowing, or participating “in any alleged irregularity” involving Wirecard’s money.
“The NBI and AMLC will work together insofar as there are indications of money laundering. I have no info on whether Wirecard is operating in the Philippines. As to Marsalek, we found something curious in the BI data base but let’s leave it at that,” Guevarra said.