Christopher Bauer, a 44-year-old German businessman and a key partner of Wirecard’s payments group, died a month after an investigation into him was opened. The Financial Times (FT) reports, citing Manila’s civil registry.
The cause of Bauer’s death is not yet clear. The civil registry declined to comment, citing data privacy laws. A guard at the Baauers’ gated community said he died of a heart attack.
The Munich public prosecutor’s office, which is leading the investigation into Wirecard, said it had not received official notice of Bauer’s death. Philippines Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra told the FT that he needs “to determine whether the deceased is the same person under investigation.” A decision on further investigations into Bauer’s death will be made after a copy of the death certificate is obtained.
Bauer’s family published a death notice on 1 August in a regional newspaper in Hesse, where his parents live.
Christopher Bauer and his wife Belinda owned the Philippine payments firm PayEasy Solutions, which accounted for €291.4 million of Wirecard’s €2 billion reported revenue in 2018, and a fifth of its operating profit.
In addition to PayEasy, the Bauers owned Centurion Online Payment International, which was also a partner of Wirecard.
Guevarra said that in 2015 Christopher Bauer received “an incoming transfer from Wirecard Asia for consultancy services”, but did not disclose the amount.
A document reviewed by FT reporters shows that Wirecard also provided PayEasy with a loan of €260 million at the end of 2019.
According to auditor KPMG, before joining PayEasy about 12 years ago Christopher Bauer was an employee of Wirecard.
In March Bauer and former Wirecard chief operating officer Jan Marsalek met in Manila, where they told KPMG and EY auditors that PayEasy specialised in processing payments for “clients with a high risk profile” in online gaming, gambling and pornography.
Philippine authorities are now investigating how immigration records were allegedly falsified, which claimed that Marsalek arrived in the country in June and flew to China the next day. Surveillance footage did not show such an arrival.
Wirecard collapsed in June after reports that €1.9 billion, allegedly held in escrow accounts in the Philippines, did not exist. On 25 June the company filed for bankruptcy. Within a week, Wirecard’s share price had fallen by 99%, from €104 to €2.
Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun was detained on suspicion of falsifying records of cash on hand in the company’s accounts.
Marsalek, after his disappearance, conducted a large transfer in bitcoins and is believed to be hiding in Russia.
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