Ex-Wirecard Asia director nabbed in S'pore as part of global sweep

A former director of Wirecard Asia was arrested in Singapore on Nov 4 during a worldwide sweep involving more than a dozen people linked to fraud syndicates, The Straits Times has learnt.

- Aqil Hamzah

Brigitte Hauser-Axtner, who is wanted in Germany, was arrested by the Singapore Police Force in the course of a worldwide law enforcement operation in which suspects linked to three major fraud and money laundering networks were nabbed.

Four major payment service providers in Germany are said to have been used by the criminal networks to process and launder the transactions, said the European Union’s law enforcement arm Europol, and while it did not name them, German investigative news outlet Der Spiegel identified Wirecard as one of them.

All in, the German authorities said 18 people were arrested in the raids, dubbed Operation Chargeback, news agency Reuters said on Nov 5.

The enforcement sweep kicked into gear on Nov 4, and the authorities searched buildings in Germany, the US, Canada, Singapore, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.

Five people were arrested in the US while another two were arrested in Cyprus.