JPMorgan, UniCredit Gave Germany Wirecard Tips That Went Nowhere
- Lenders flagged suspicious transactions but not followed up
- Wirecard seen as biggest financial scandal in recent history
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UniCredit SpA, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Commerzbank AG were among banks which flagged suspicious transactions related to collapsed payments firm Wirecard AG but received little attention from prosecutors before the demise of the firm last year, according to evidence given to a German parliamentary investigation.
Italian lender UniCredit warned German anti-money-laundering authorities in early 2019 of a questionable transaction involving former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek. Officials there passed the information to relevant prosecutors in Munich but were quickly informed that the case wouldn’t be followed up, the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Christof Schulte, told lawmakers on Tuesday.