2 men given jail over fake documents at Singapore-based firm linked to multi-million-dollar Wirecard case
Both men will be appealing against their conviction and sentence.
James Henry O’Sullivan (left) and R Shanmugaratnam (right) arrive at the State Courts on July 31, 2023. Both claimed trial in the Wirecard case to charges of falsifying documents related to millions held in escrow accounts.
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SINGAPORE: Two men involved in the falsification of documents concerning hundreds of millions of dollars by a Singapore-based company linked to Wirecard AG - a German payments company that collapsed in 2020 - were each handed jail terms on Tuesday (Jan 6).
Singaporean R Shanmugaratnam, 59, and Briton James Henry O'Sullivan, 51, were given 10 years' jail and six-and-a-half years' jail respectively in the State Courts at a sentencing hearing. Both had been convicted of numerous charges in September following a trial.
Shanmugaratnam is a director of local accounting firm Citadelle Corporate Services. O'Sullivan had engaged Citadelle's services to set up companies in Singapore and to provide company secretarial services.
In September, Shanmugaratnam was convicted of 13 charges for falsifying 13 balance confirmation letters between 2016 and 2018 with fraudulent intent. O'Sullivan was found guilty of five charges for abetting Shanmugaratnam, by instigating him to fraudulently issue five of those letters in 2017.
After the sentences were passed, both men told the court through their lawyers that they will be filing appeals against conviction and sentence. They each also have pending charges related to falsification that have been fixed for pre-trial conferences.
During the hearing, District Judge Kow Keng Siong did not elaborate on the sentences but said he will be providing grounds for his decision later.
FALSE LETTERS
Both men had taken instructions from senior Wirecard executives, then issued several false confirmation letters, and intentionally misrepresented to auditors that the Wirecard AG had hundreds of millions in euros held in Citadelle’s escrow bank accounts in Singapore.
Prosecutors said that at all material periods mentioned in letters, Citadelle had not held any money for Wirecard AG.
"The scale of the falsification is unprecedented," Deputy Public Prosecutors Gordon Oh, Alexandria Shamini Joseph and Louis Ngia, who had earlier asked for between eight-and-a-half and 10 years’ jail for Shanmugaratnam and six to seven years’ jail for O'Sullivan.
The prosecution said that the balances misrepresented in each confirmation letter ranged from 20 million euros (S$30 million) to about 327.5 million euros, describing the individual sums alone as "significant".
The two men knew each other from 2010 when O'Sullivan had engaged Citadelle's services. Citadelle offered corporate secretarial services to 30 of O'Sullivan's companies.
As director, Shanmugaratnam managed the accounts, made payments for O'Sullivan's salary and other personal bills such as his housing and utility bills, among other tasks.
O'Sullivan was a long-time business partner and friend of Jan Marsalek, who was the chief operating officer of Wirecard AG. He introduced Marsalek to Shanmugaratnam sometime before July 2015.
According to Shanmugaratnam, Marsalek asked him to act as an escrow agent between Wirecard entities and O'Sullivan's companies.
Wirecard was made insolvent in 2020. Marsalek has since been named in an Interpol Red Notice related to fraud.
The penalty for falsifying documents and for abetment of such an offence is a maximum jail term of 10 years, a fine, or both.
Both men were offered bail pending their appeals.
