Several Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers have been relieved and face administrative sanctions for allegedly fabricating data that showed former Wirecard AG chief operating officer (COO) Jan Marsalek was in Cebu last month, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Satuday, July 4.
“The immigration officers who encoded these fictitious entries have been relieved and are now facing administrative sanctions,” Guevarra said.
The secretary said he will also order the National Bureau of Investigation “to probe into this matter more deeply and determine possible criminal responsibility.”
“The investigation has now turned to the persons who made the false entries in the data base, their motives, and their cohorts,” he stated.
Guevarra made the move after the BI looked into discrepancies concerning the immigration data which showed that Marsalek arrived at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport on June 23 and departed on June 24 for China.
“The BI has established that Jan Marsalek, former COO of Wirecard AG, did not arrive in the Philippines on June 23 based on CCTV (closed circuit television) footages, airline manifests, and other records,” the secretary said on Satuday.
“He (Marsalek) also did not depart on June 24, as there was no such flight to China as indicated in the data base of the Bureau of Immigration,” Guevarra also pointed out.
Wirecard, which has been described as a German fintech firm, found itself in a scandal following the discovery of accounting irregularities which showed that there are US$2.1 billion missing.
Guevarra had previously directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate persons in the country who are allegedly connected to Wirecard following consultations with the Bangko Sentral nf Pilipinas (BSP).
The secretary also earlier asked the BI to look into the presence of Marsalek in the country due to alleged reports that the 40-year-old Austrian was married to a Filipina and had been in the Philippines from March 3 to 5.