FALSE LETTERS
Both men had taken instructions from senior Wirecard executives, then issued several false confirmation letters, and intentionally misrepresented to auditors that the Wirecard AG had hundreds of millions in euros held in Citadelle’s escrow bank accounts in Singapore.
Prosecutors said that at all material periods mentioned in letters, Citadelle had not held any money for Wirecard AG.
"The scale of the falsification is unprecedented," Deputy Public Prosecutors Gordon Oh, Alexandria Shamini Joseph and Louis Ngia, who had earlier asked for between eight-and-a-half and 10 years’ jail for Shanmugaratnam and six to seven years’ jail for O'Sullivan.
The prosecution said that the balances misrepresented in each confirmation letter ranged from 20 million euros (S$30 million) to about 327.5 million euros, describing the individual sums alone as "significant".
The two men knew each other from 2010 when O'Sullivan had engaged Citadelle's services. Citadelle offered corporate secretarial services to 30 of O'Sullivan's companies.
As director, Shanmugaratnam managed the accounts, made payments for O'Sullivan's salary and other personal bills such as his housing and utility bills, among other tasks.
O'Sullivan was a long-time business partner and friend of Jan Marsalek, who was the chief operating officer of Wirecard AG. He introduced Marsalek to Shanmugaratnam sometime before July 2015.
According to Shanmugaratnam, Marsalek asked him to act as an escrow agent between Wirecard entities and O'Sullivan's companies.
Wirecard was made insolvent in 2020. Marsalek has since been named in an Interpol Red Notice related to fraud.
The penalty for falsifying documents and for abetment of such an offence is a maximum jail term of 10 years, a fine, or both.
Both men were offered bail pending their appeals.
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