Mark Tolentino, Filipino lawyer tagged in Wirecard controversy, denies irregularities

Mark Kristopher Tolentino, the Filipino lawyer and former government official embroiled in the controversy involving the missing $2.1 billion of German payments provider Wirecard, has denied involvement in any irregularity.

In a statement through his legal counsel Dennis Manalo, Tolentino said his law firm M.K. Tolentino Law & Business Consultancy Office “adamantly denies knowledge and participation in any alleged irregularity arising from new reports that Certificates of Deposits issued by BPI and BDO and submitted to Ernst and Young GMBH were spurious.

“All services rendered by MKT Law, including the opening and maintenance of Philippine deposit accounts for foreign clients, are above board and performed with utmost compliance with Philippine laws and regulations,” Tolentino said.

BDO Unibank Inc. and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) have earlier denied involvement with Wirecard, saying the documents presented to the banks were forged or spurious. 

“Formal demands have been made today for BPI and BDO to confirm these accounts and to treat them with absolute confidentiality, as mandated in the Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines,” said Tolentino.

Wirecard, in a statement, said it was informed by its auditor Ernst and Young (EY) that it refused to clear its 2019 accounts over “spurious balance confirmations.”

It said EY has received communications from two Asian banks, which were supposed to be holding the 1.9 billion euros or $2.1 billion, that they have taken over the management of trust accounts for Wirecard since 2019.

The two banks were not identified by Wirecard.

The German firm added there were “indications that the auditors have been presented with incorrect balance confirmation for fraud purposes from a trustee or from the area of these banks.”

German news outlet Süddeutsche Zeiting reported that Tolentino was appointed a trustee of Wirecard to open six accounts with BDO and BPI to hold in escrow the payments firm’s 1.9 billion euros or $2.1 billion.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, however, said none of Wirecard’s missing $2.1 billion entered the country’s financial system. 

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

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. 

BDO said it has fired the rouge employee who allegedly a fabricated a bank certificate, while BPI suspended an employee for suppose falsification of documents. 

Tolentino, meanwhile, said his law office is “still in the process of conducting its own investigation and will act based on facts that would be established.”

“However, given its fiduciary duties, MKT Law cannot disclose or discuss any client information detail,” he said.

Tolentino was a former assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation. He was sacked by President Rodrigo Duterte for allegedly having dealings with the chief executive’s sister. 

He later on apologized to Duterte for making statements that he said put the President in an embarrassing situation. --KBK, GMA News