A Wirecard trial is currently taking place not only in Munich. Two defendants are also on trial in Singapore and must answer for document falsification in connection with Wirecard vanished millions held in escrow accounts. The Wirecard Singapore trial commenced on Monday, July 31, with two men connected to the collapsed German payments firm. They are pleading not guilty to charges of falsifying documents related to millions held in escrow accounts.
The Defendants In The Wirecard Singapore Trial
Rajaratnam Shanmugaratnam,a/k/a R Shan, a 57-year-old Singaporean, and James Henry O’Sullivan, a 48-year-old Briton, denied the charges in a hearing before District Judge Kow Keng Siong in the Singapore State Courts. Shanmugaratnam, the director and sole shareholder of Citadelle Corporate Services, a local company providing accounting and auditing services, had access to the company’s OCBC bank accounts.
The British payment entrepreneur and investor James Henry O’Sullivan was an important partner in establishing the opaque Wirecard network and allegedly cashed hundreds of millions of euros from Wirecard. He is said to be behind numerous Wirecard transactions and some notorious Third-Party Acquirers (TPA). O’Sullivan has lived and worked in Singapore for many years, is considered a payment expert, and was close to the former Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek (report here). Financial Times called James Henry O’Sullivan a hard-partying Englishman.
The Wirecard Singapore trial revealed that Shanmugaratnam met O’Sullivan in 2010 when the latter engaged Citadelle to establish companies in Singapore.
Key People In The Wirecard Singapore Trial
- R Shanmugaratnam: A 57-year-old Singaporean, Shanmugaratnam is the director and sole shareholder of Citadelle Corporate Services, a local company providing accounting and auditing services. He is accused of falsifying letters from Citadelle to various parties, including Wirecard AG and its subsidiaries as well as auditors in Germany and Ireland.
- James Henry O’Sullivan: A 48-year-old Briton, O’Sullivan is charged with abetting by instructing Shanmugaratnam to issue the falsified letters.
- Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh: Leading the prosecution, Oh announced that they would proceed on 13 out of 14 charges for Shanmugaratnam and five out of seven charges for O’Sullivan in the Wirecard Singapore trial.
- District Judge Kow Keng Siong: The judge presiding over the case in the Singapore State Courts.
- Oliver Bellenhaus and Jan Marsalek: These individuals are not directly involved in the Singapore trial, but they are key figures in the broader Wirecard scandal. Bellenhaus was the then-managing director of a related Wirecard company in Dubai, and Marsalek was the chief operating officer of Wirecard. They are both facing prosecution in Germany for offences including fraud and market manipulation. Marsalek remains at large.
- OCBC Bank Representative: The first witness expected to testify in the trial.
The Charges
The falsified letters stated that large sums of money ranging from €20 million (S$29m) to €328 million were held by Citadelle in escrow accounts when in fact, these sums did not exist. In five of the letters, the bank accounts stated did not exist.
The falsified letters were purportedly prepared between 2016 and 2018.
The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh, announced that it would proceed on 13 out of 14 charges for Shanmugaratnam and five out of seven charges for O’Sullivan in the Wirecard Singapore trial. The remaining charges were stood down for the time being.
The charges against Shanmugaratnam are for falsifying letters from Citadelle to various parties, including the German Wirecard AG and its subsidiaries and auditors in Germany and Ireland. These letters falsely stated that Citadelle held large sums of money in escrow accounts.
O’Sullivan’s charges are for abetting by instructing Shanmugaratman to issue the letters.
In October 2019, Financial Times reported on Wirecard’s suspected accounting practices. Following the report, Wirecard appointed KPMG in Germany to investigate the allegations. The big-four auditor reported that it could not verify Wirecard’s revenues, as its arrangements for receivables predominantly involved payments to escrow or trust accounts held with third parties.
In June 2020, Wirecard announced that €1.9 billion held in escrow or trust accounts did not exist. It filed for insolvency in Germany. Several individuals, including the former CEO Markus Braun, were arrested and are standing trial in Munich over charges of fraud and market manipulation.
The Wirecard Singapore trial resumes on Monday afternoon, with the prosecution’s first witness, an OCBC bank representative, expected to testify. The first tranche is slated to run over nine days until Aug 11.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Wirecard Singapore trial.
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