German prosecutors believe Dubai and Asia hold the key to uncovering the Wirecard scheme. This is also where the (actually non-existent ) billions are said to have been located in escrow accounts. Oliver Bellenhaus was the director for Wirecard in Dubai at the time and has already admitted that he was involved in faking the non-existent third-party business to the auditors via fake documents. The then Wirecard COO Ruediger Trautmann could have made the initial contact with the Asian trustees, Bellenhaus told the court.
The Payabl Connection
Ruediger Trautmann (LinkedIn) was a top executive alongside Dietmar Knoechelmann in Wirecard‘s critical early years. The two left Wirecard in 2010 and 2009, respectively, and founded Payabl (then PowerCash21). Former notorious Wirecard short-seller Fraser Perring claims in a famous Zatarra Report that Trautmann and Knoechelmann were still active in the Wirecard environment after their official departure. PowerCash21 (now Payabl) is said to have been one of the satellite companies in the Wirecard shadow organization. Trautmann is the CEO of Payabl Solutions, the German branch of the group.
Payabl, a payment institution regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus, follows the Wirecard business model and specializes in high-risk merchants from the porn, gambling, and investment segments. In this respect, Payabl is a kind of Wirecard Mini-Me without criminal ingredients.
Indicted Trustees
One of the Asian trustees in the Wirecard scheme was Rajaratnam Shanmugaratnam, aka Shan Rajaratnam, a director of Citadelle Corporate Services Pte Ltd in Singapore. In May 2022, prosecutors charged him with 14 counts of falsification of documents. He allegedly issued 14 letters from Citadelle to Wirecard, its subsidiaries, and an audit firm, which falsely represented that Citadelle held large sums of money in its escrow accounts at various points in time between 2015 and 2017, However, Citadelle did not maintain such accounts or hold such balances in its accounts. The proceedings against Shan Rajaratnam are ongoing.
