Anti-Money Laundering Council working with NBI to probe Wirecard mess

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is working with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate German firm Wirecard's missing $2.1 billion amid allegations that two of the country's biggest banks were involved.

“The AMLC is currently coordinating with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), regarding the case, in accordance with our mandate,” the anti-dirty money body said in a statement.

The AMLC, however, said it would not release more details so as not to preempt the probe.

“Upon the instruction of the AMLC Chairman and BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] Governor Benjamin Diokno, we have initiated a money laundering investigation on all persons and entities of interest to the Wirecard case,” AMLC Executive Director Mel Georgie Racela said in a separate text message.

“We have already coordinated with the NBI and agreed to conduct parallel investigations on both money laundering and any other offenses,” he added.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Jan Marsalek, former chief operating officer of Wirecard in the midst of the accounting scandal, could still be in the Philippines. 

Citing immigration records, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Marsalek arrived in the Philippines on March 3 and left on March 5.

"There are some indications that he may have returned recently and may still be here," Guevarra said.

The Cabinet official said he had directed the NBI to investigate certain individuals allegedly involved in the Wirecard case, in which 1.9 billion euros or $2.1 billion is said to have gone missing.

He said the NBI and AMLC would work together "insofar as there are indications of money laundering."

Two Philippine banks, BDO Unibank and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), have denied involvement with Wirecard, both saying they have determined that documents claiming Wirecard was a client of theirs were false.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno earlier said the missing $2.1 billion did not enter the Philippine financial system.

Filipino lawyer Mark Tolentino, tagged as the “trustee” of Wirecard’s supposedly missing cash, claimed he was framed and that his identity was stolen by “foreigners” who came into his office asking how they can do business in the Philippines. 

The chief executive of Wirecard, Markus Braun, has resigned after the search for $2.1 billion of cash missing from the embattled electronic payments firm hit a dead end in the Philippines.

The scandal-hit German payments provider later on said that the missing money it booked in its accounts “likely never existed.”

BDO said it has fired the rogue employee who allegedly fabricated a bank certificate, while BPI suspended an employee for supposed falsification of documents. -NB/BM, GMA News