On 3 July 2020, the Commercial Affairs Department (“CAD”) of the Singapore Police Force and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) announced a joint investigation into Citadelle Corporate Services Pte Ltd (“Citadelle”), Senjo Group Pte Ltd and its subsidiaries (“Senjo”) for suspected falsification of accounts under the Penal Code (Cap 224), as well as carrying on a trust business without a licence under the Trust Companies Act (Cap 336).
To date, a 55-year-old director of Citadelle has been charged with 14 counts of falsification of accounts under Section 477A of the Penal Code for allegedly issuing 14 letters from Citadelle to Wirecard AG, its subsidiaries and an audit firm, that falsely represented that Citadelle held large sums of money in its escrow accounts at various points in time between 2015 and 2017, when Citadelle actually did not maintain such accounts or did not hold such balances in its accounts.
Arising from further investigations, a 46-year-old man has been arrested on 30 August 2021 in relation to the falsified letters of Citadelle. He will be charged in court on 1 September 2021 with one count of Section 477A read with Section 109 of the Penal Code for allegedly abetting the Citadelle’s Director to issue a letter from Citadelle to a Wirecard subsidiary to falsely represent that Citadelle held a balance of EUR 86,382,983.30 in an escrow account as of 30 December 2016, when Citadelle actually did not maintain such an account.
Investigations are ongoing. The offence of abetting the falsification of accounts under Section 477A read with Section 109 of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, a fine, or both.
Source: Singapore Police Force