SINGAPORE: The Singapore Police Force said Monday (Feb 4) they are looking into a report of alleged forgery by German digital payments firm Wirecard in its Asian operations, including in Singapore.
The Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported last week it had seen documents from lawyers commissioned by Wirecard, showing they had found evidence of "serious offences of forgery and/or of falsification of accounts/documents" at the group's Singapore office.
Advertisement"There are reasons to suspect that they may have been carried out to conceal other misdeeds, such as cheating, criminal breach of trust, corruption and/or money laundering," the document seen by the FT said.
In response to queries by Channel NewsAsia on Monday, the police said they were "looking into the matter."
Stocks in Wirecard, which knocked banking stalwart Commerzbank out of Germany's prestigious DAX blue-chip index last year, fell by about 40 per cent last week in reaction to two FT reports on the alleged fraud.
Wirecard has hit back at what it described as "yet another inaccurate, misleading and defamatory" article.
AdvertisementAdvertisementWirecard on Wednesday issued a denial of the FT's original article on suspected fraud at the company, which the paper said was based on a different internal document.
It accused the journalist responsible of publishing "a false, inaccurate, misleading and defamatory article" that "lacks any substance".
NO CONCLUSIVE FINDINGS: WIRECARD
On Monday, Wirecard said that an external law firm it brought in to investigate actions by a member of its finance team in Singapore made no conclusive findings of criminal misconduct by any employee of the company.
Wirecard said that in April 2018, a member of its Singapore team raised concerns about alleged actions of a finance team member in Singapore.
The company then started an investigation, which found no evidence to support the allegations.
"Furthermore, there were indications that the allegations could be related to personal animosity between the employees involved", the company said.
Nonetheless, Wirecard hired law firm Rajah & Tann for a review which is about to be completed, but has so far not brought up findings of criminal misconduct, the electronic payments company said.
German financial markets watchdog Bafin said Thursday it was launching an investigation into possible market manipulation over the story.
Wirecard stunned the traditional German banking sector last year by displacing Commerzbank, which had enjoyed sizeable enough market capitalisation and trading volumes to be listed on the DAX for decades.
Hailed as a champion of the "fintech" (financial technology) scene with its software for cashless and contactless payments, it then boasted a market valuation of more than €23 billion outweighing even giant Deutsche Bank.
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