German payments giant Wirecard filed for insolvency after admitting that the €1.9 billion missing from its accounts did not exist. MANILA: A top Philippine financial investigator said on Friday he has asked Berlin authorities for information on dozens of"persons of interest" in a Manila inquiry on the Wirecard accounting scandal.
Mel Georgie Racela, executive director of the Philippines' Anti-Money Laundering Council, said it and the justice department's National Bureau of Investigation shared a list of"57 persons of interest" with German investigators. Another is German businessman Christopher Reinhard Bauer, who the Philippine government said died from natural causes in Manila in July."We also need evidence... that these foreigners are engaged in fraudulent activities," Racela told an online news conference.
Philippine investigators have not specified Bauer's role in the accounting scandal, but the Financial Times has described him as a former Wirecard Asia Pacific executive.