Executives found guilty of fraud in Singapore Wirecard case
Briton and Singaporean faked documents to suggest German payments company was in better financial health
Two businessmen were found guilty on Monday of falsifying documents for senior executives at Wirecard as part of one of Europe’s biggest accounting frauds.
James Henry O’Sullivan, a 50-year-old British national, and Shan Rajaratnam, a 61-year-old Singaporean, used the documents to hoodwink auditor EY into thinking the German fintech start-up had more money stored away than actually existed.
In June 2020, Wirecard disclosed that €1.9bn said to be in the accounts did not exist. The business subsequently collapsed in one of Europe’s largest accounting scandals.
The verdict by a Singaporean judge on Monday follows a trial that has lasted for two years and has had the highest profile of several cases brought in the city-state in connection with Wirecard. Both men will be sentenced on November 20.
Markus Braun, Wirecard’s former chief executive, and two other senior managers are currently on trial in Germany, while Jan Marsalek, the company’s former chief operating officer, fled to Russia to avoid prosecution.
O’Sullivan was a close confidant of Marsalek and ran a series of businesses in Asia with close ties to Wirecard. He was accused of instructing Rajaratnam, a director of secretarial firm Citadelle Corporate Services, to falsify documents.
O’Sullivan was found guilty of five charges and Rajaratnam 13, each relating to specific fraudulent transactions and carrying possible sentences of up to 10 years in prison as well as fines. Both had their bail doubled to S$300,000 (US$233,000) by the judge.
The charges related to paperwork sent by Rajaratnam between March 2016 and March 2018 that purported to show €150mn in cash overseen by Citadelle on behalf of Wirecard in Singaporean bank accounts.
Several mid-level Wirecard executives have been imprisoned in Singapore over the past two years, in cases that included the first criminal convictions linked to the scandal.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s financial regulator, has also fined several banks and an insurer for anti-money laundering breaches connected to Wirecard.