MANILA (PHILIPPINES) – Philippines Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Saturday that immigration records showing Wirecard’s former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek’s arrival in the country on June 23 and departure for China the following day were fake.
The Justice Secretary said immigration officials made the fake entries have been suspended and they face administrative action.
“The investigation has now turned to persons who made the false entries in the database, their motives and their cohorts,” Guevarra said.
After auditor EY refused to sign off on Wirecard’s accounts, Marsalek, 40, was terminated on June 18. The firm collapsed a week later and it owes creditors almost $4 billion after revealing a $2.1 billion hole in its accounts. EY blamed it on global fraud.
The missing funds were allegedly stashed away in escrow accounts at two banks in the Philippines, although they have denied the allegations.
“Notwithstanding the Bureau of Immigration report, I do not totally discount the possibility that Marsalek may be in the Philippines,” Guevarra said.
“We are an island country, and there are backdoors through which undocumented foreigners may slip through,” he said.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field