The investigation into Wirecard AG, the German electronic payment transfer company, has expanded to Ireland.
The Irish Times reported the company’s Dublin offices were raided by police at the request of German authorities.
“Following receipt of a mutual legal assistance treaty from German authorities, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) began a search under warrant at a financial services provider with a business premises in Dublin city centre today, Thursday, July 9,” the GNECB press office said in a statement .
A spokeswoman for An Garda Siochána, or “the Guards” the national police service of the Republic of Ireland, declined to name the financial services firm.
“Detectives attached to the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau are assisting GNECB during the course of the searches, which are being conducted in an effort to obtain evidence concerning alleged fraud at the financial institution and its subsidiaries.”
Once a $28 billion financial technology giant, the company declared insolvency last month, the equivalent of a bankruptcy filing in the U.S., reporting it was in debt to the tune of nearly $4 billion after it revealed $2.1 billion went missing from two Philippines banks that Ernst & Young said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud.
In addition, German law enforcement authorities said they have added money laundering, balance falsification and market manipulation to the charges facing the collapsed firm.
“We are investigating suspected money laundering,” a spokeswoman for the Munich prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The inquiry is focused on Wirecard executives. She declined to name the individuals, or to say how many were being probed.
Wirecard declined to comment on the investigation and reports of the raid of its Dublin office.
This week, Wirecard executive Oliver Bellenhaus, 46, was arrested in Munich for his alleged central role in the massive worldwide fraud case. He managed Wirecard’s CardSystems Middle East, the largest individual unit under Wirecard.
Former CEO Markus Braun was arrested and later released last month on bail.
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