Wirecard managers in Germany were aware of transactions in fraud probe, FT says

[FRANKFURT] Wirecard AG executives in Germany allegedly approved potentially fraudulent transactions totaling two million euros (S$3.1 million), according to a report by the Financial Times.

Citing documents including invoices and messages, the FT reported that in March 2018 four payments of 500,000 euros were transferred from Germany to a Singapore account and that those transactions are at the center of a fraud investigation by Singapore police. Wirecard generated about 2.1 billion euros in sales last year.

The funds, which were requested by regulators for a license application to issue prepaid cards, were then intended to be transferred to Wirecard's Hermes unit in India, according to the report. Wirecard has been drawn into a London lawsuit between former minority shareholders of the Indian business who claim they were cheated out of money before the embattled payments company bought the firm in 2015.

Wirecard told the FT that the allegations are not new and appear to be based on a preliminary report, while the outcome of its full investigation will be "available shortly."

Wirecard - a member of Germany's benchmark DAX index - has been rocked by a series of earlier FT reports over alleged fraud at its Singapore office. The concerns prompted wild swings in the share price, with its value falling at times almost 50 per cent. The volatility prompted Germany's financial regulator to take the unprecedented step of banning new short sales.

BLOOMBERG