2 BI officers sacked over Wirecard mess

MANILA, Philippines — Two employees of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have been relieved from their posts for allegedly falsifying the entry of Wirecard’s former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek in the country last month.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed yesterday that immigration records showing that Marsalek arrived in the Philippines on June 23 and departed for China the next day were falsified.

Guevarra said the BI officers were relieved of their duties and face administrative sanctions.

“The investigation has now turned to persons who made the false entries in the database, their motives and their cohorts,” he told reporters.

Guevarra said one of the BI personnel was previously assigned at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, which was the gateway allegedly used by Marsalek to enter the country.

The other employee was assigned at the BI central office in Intramuros, Manila.

Guevarra said the BI employees are being investigated by a fact-finding committee.

He said aside from the March 3 to 5 trip of Marsalek to the Philippines, they were verifying information that the 40-year-old Austrian went to Cebu on June 23.

Marsalek was fired as executive of the German firm on June 18 after auditor EY refused to sign off on Wirecard’s accounts.

The company owed creditors  almost $4 billion after disclosing a $2.1 billion hole in its accounts that EY said was the result of a global fraud.

The missing money was purportedly held in escrow accounts at two Philippine banks, which have denied any links with the Wirecard.