A Singapore court sentenced two businessmen to lengthy jail terms on Tuesday for falsifying documents that tricked auditors into believing payments firm Wirecard had hundreds of millions of euros in bank accounts, local media reported.

Wirecard’s involvement in iGaming was a significant part of its business, particularly in processing payments for online gambling and adult entertainment, but it became central to its massive fraud scandal due to alleged money laundering, links to organized crime (like the ‘Ndrangheta mafia), and the non-existence of partner companies in Asia that handled these high-risk transactions, leading to its collapse in 2020 when €1.9 billion vanished.

Investigations revealed shady dealings with shell companies in Asia, moving funds for risky online casinos, highlighting how its iGaming operations masked deep-seated accounting fraud and criminal connections. 

Singaporean R Shanmugaratnam, 59, and Briton James Henry O’Sullivan, 51, were given jail terms of 10 years and six-and-a-half years’ respectively, local news outlet CNA reported. 

The court did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the decision.  

Shanmugaratnam and O’Sullivan had taken instructions from senior Wirecard executives then issued false confirmation letters, intentionally misrepresenting to auditors that the fintech startup had hundreds of millions in euros held in escrow bank accounts of Singapore accounting firm Citadelle.

Markus Braun, Wirecard’s former chief executive, and two other senior managers are currently on trial in Germany, while Marsalek fled to Russia to avoid prosecution.