The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) have filed a criminal complaint against four people and other unknown suspects allegedly involved in the collapse of German payment company Wirecard AG last year.
Government prosecutors will conduct a preliminary investigation on the case, for falsification and violations of the General Banking Act, Electronic Commerce Act and Cybercrime Prevention Act, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Friday.
State agents earlier submitted three reports on Wirecard, whose missing 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) was supposedly placed in two Philippine banks. The Philippine central bank had said the money had not entered the country’s financial system.
The respondents were accused of issuing fake bank certifications and account summaries, making false entries in bank statements and fraudulent transactions, hacking into a computer system or server and accessing confidential data.
Also facing the complaint are two Immigration officers accused of tampering with the travel records of Jan Marsalek, a dismissed board member and former chief operating officer at Wirecard.
They allegedly made it appear that Mr. Marslek arrived in the Philippines on June 23 last year and left for China the following day.
The officers were charged with violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act and Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago