By Elizabeth Hearst
The Irish offices of failed German payments group Wirecard have been raided by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB).
Gardaí raided the Dublin office as part of an on-going fraud investigation launched by German authorities. The Munich-based payment provider Wirecard filed for insolvency in June, amassing debts of over €4 Billion and a €1.9 Billion hole in its accounts.
A statement from the Garda Press Office read, “Following receipt of a mutual legal assistance treaty from German authorities, the GNECB began a search under warrant at a financial services provider on July 9th 2020,
“Detectives attached to the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau are assisting GNECB during the course of the searches, which are being conducted in an effort to obtain evidence concerning alleged fraud at the financial institution and its subsidiaries.”
The Board of Wirecard launched an investigation under auditors KPMG amid allegations of fraud by the Financial Times. The subsequent report found that previous auditors EY had failed for three years to request critical information from a Singapore bank, in which Wirecard stated it had €1 Billion in cash.
The raid by Gardaí follows an on-going investigation into the German payments company, which has seen a widening of prosecutions following the recent arrest of the head of Wirecard’s Dubai subsidiary by Munich prosecutors.
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