SINGAPORE: A former employee of Wirecard Asia was sentenced to 10 weeks' jail on Tuesday (Oct 10) for helping her superiors embezzle S$47,000 (US$34,400) from the subsidiary of the German-registered international payment services company.
Singaporean See Lee Wee, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust with two counts of moneylaundering taken into consideration.
According to her lawyers, she was a junior finance executive who followed the instructions of her direct supervisor and the alleged mastermind, Wirecard Asia vice-president of controlling and international finance Edo Kurniawan.
Edo escaped Singapore before he could be nabbed and is at large with an Interpol red notice against him.
See, also known as Krystal, worked as a controlling manager at Wirecard Asia, and was responsible for financial planning and analysis for Wirecard entities in the Asia-Pacific region.
She reported to co-accused Irene Chai Ai Lim, head of finance at Wirecard Asia at the time. Chai in turn reported to Edo.
In October 2018, Edo told Chai that he needed to transfer S$100,000 for a person called "India" and asked her if the company had available funds.
After Chai confirmed this, Edo approached See and said he needed cash urgently. He asked her to take a loan from Wirecard Asia, and to withdraw the cash and hand it to him as soon as possible.
Edo told See that the "loan" would be converted into a "bonus" for her, so she would not need to worry about repaying the loan.
See did not know the purpose of the transfer and did not ask Edo about it. She felt uncomfortable but agreed.
Chai arranged for S$47,000 to be transferred from Wirecard Asia's bank account to See's personal bank account.
Following Edo's instructions, See withdrew most of the cash and passed it to an unidentified man and to Edo. She retained about S$3,440 in her own account and used it on her own expenses.
The "loan" was never converted into a bonus and was not repaid.
See later paid about S$18,000 to Wirecard Asia, while Chai made separate restitution of S$70,000 to the company.
Chai pleaded guilty to her role in the case and was sentenced to 10 months' jail in June.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Vincent Koh sought three to five months' jail for See, noting that she was less culpable than Chai.
A JUNIOR LEARNING THE ROPES: DEFENCE
Lawyer Derek Kang asked for not more than two months' jail instead, saying that any other junior employee could have been directed by Chai to carry out the act.
In fact, Chai could have done it herself but "didn't want to get her hands dirty", he said.
See was a junior finance worker learning the ropes, and while she knew what she was doing was wrong, it must be seen in the context that she was aware of similar past transactions in the company, said Mr Kang.
He said she carried out the illegal transaction on the instructions of her supervisors and bosses whom she had learnt the ropes from.
Mr Kang said it was quite clear that See and other junior staff were manipulated by the main players in relation to the criminal conduct.
"They were forced to follow what their bosses told them to do, because if they did not, their own employment would be at risk," said Mr Kang.
The Wirecard scandal broke three years ago after its auditor could not verify €1.9 billion (US$2.07 billion) supposedly held abroad in escrow by third-party partners, and subsequently refused to sign off on 2019 accounts.
The judge noted that the quantum of money taken was "not insignificant", but also acknowledged that See was merely the "arms and legs" of the scheme.
Top executives, including former chief executive Markus Braun, face allegations of fraud and market manipulation in what has been termed Germany's biggest post-war fraud.
Prosecutors in the Munich trial against Braun charged that those involved had invented phantom revenue through bogus transactions with partner companies to mislead creditors and investors.