Mark Tolentino: A strange lawyer immersed in the Wirecard scandal

One week before the disbandment of the Wirecard in June 2020, it seemed that the speed of the hunt for $ 1.9 billion was increasing.

The payment group’s EY auditor requested iron proof of Wirecard’s claim from two lenders in the Philippines, the Bank of the Philippines (BPI) and the amount of BDO Unibank.

The strongest evidence that there was money was the biggest hurdle between Wirecard and a clean health bill from EY, a potential exception to the group that was already besieged around accounting.

While shareholders were waiting for the end of the session on the Wirecard’s annual results, Jan Marsal, the group’s main agent, was engaged in horrific exchanges with an email account named after Mark Tolentino, a Manila lawyer. The German company told him that EY was its trustee in the Philippines, which oversaw the money in its bank accounts on its behalf.

On June 17, 2020, an email to the account read: “I am currently driving to the BPI headquarters. . .[and am] phone with bank “.

24 hours later, Marsal said: “The situation is very bad today! Please call me! “

A curious lawyer, businessman, first aide to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and unlikely to be a YouTube star, Tolentin has denied being a Wirecard trustee.

His Manila office doubles as a studio where he provides legal advice on a well-known chain to earn a plaque that gives the California company what it needs to reach 100,000 subscribers.

Marsal in the days following the emails, Wirecard he filed for bankruptcy 1.9 million euros in cash after it appeared. Corporate fraud is being investigated by Munich prosecutors and in the midst of an investigation by the German parliament.

The prosecution believes Marsal was one of its architects, suggesting that his emails were imaginary 1.9 billion euros. Marsal’s lawyer declined to comment.

‘Not my email address’

The Wirecard administrator sent them to the parliamentary probe and the email exchanges seen by the Financial Times show that the Philippines was suddenly the center of a successful German technology center that had been successful for years at the time of the company’s death.

They also raise questions about Tolentino’s role. When FT visited Tolentino in its Manila offices in late February, he said he was a “victim” in the Wirecard scandal. He showed the email he exchanged with Marsal and said, “This is the first time I’ve seen it. It’s not my email address.”

A video uploaded to his Youtube channel, however, appears in the email address listed in the exchanges with Marsal, attorney@marktolentinolaw.co. Tolentin did not respond to a request for comment on the email address shown in the video.

Last year Wirecard went bankrupt and soon spoke to FT again, Tolentino said “Not a Wirecard Administrator”, “never signed any documents” with the group and accused the embarrassed company of “identity theft”.

This account does not exist with the special audit conducted by KPMG on Wirecard. The findings, published in April 2020, increased the pressure on EY to find undeniable evidence that it was 1.9 billion euros real.

The audit appendix, unpublished but seen by FT, states in a March 2020 meeting with representatives of KPMG, EY and Wirecard at Tolentino’s office, the lawyer said his company has opened bank accounts on behalf of the BPI and BDO payment group.

Tolentin told FT that he knew German-speaking “potential customers” – including someone who said he was “the boss” and people he thought were his accountants – who were queued up in February or March 2020 in his office. He refused to work, citing lawyer-client privileges.

From seafood to Covid vaccines

Almost a year after the fall of the Wirecard, Tolentino is expanding its eclectic paper portfolio.

“I’m 20 percent a lawyer and 80 percent an entrepreneur,” Tolentin told FT in his office. His business interests included exporting seafood and releasing a hand sanitizer.

He recently became the CEO of MKG Universal Drugs Trading, which he believes will be the exclusive distributor of the Chinese Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to Philippine businesses after the owner has obtained the necessary permission.

The vaccine was at the center of the debate, with some Duterte security staff receiving doses from a batch last year smuggling to the country.

Anger seems to have done little to cool Tolentino’s political intentions, as they are now based on a new organization linked to the national boxing hero Manny Pacquiaori.

As a lawyer, Tolentino appeared in the last tremendous months of Wirecard’s existence.

By the end of 2019, OCBC, Singapore’s second-largest bank with a local company, Citadelle Corporate Services, was believed to be accounting for 1.9 million euros, apparently acting as a trustee and supplying EY if there was money there were affirmations.

Change of Board of Trustees

According to the special audit appendix, Tolentino told KPMG that in November 2019 he had signed a contract with Citadelle to transfer the trust’s responsibilities to Wirecard. The appendix states that Citadelle recommended it to the payment group.

Citadel director R Shanmugaratnam has been accused of falsifying Singapore accounts and has yet to file a claim. He denied it through his lawyer, citing proceedings against him.

OCBC had no bank relationship with Wirecard and Citadelle did not have a bond account, according to a person who knew the subject. OCBC has not commented.

In March 2020, the BDO and the BPI sent requests for confirmation of the balances containing a letter from the “MK Tolentino Law Office”, according to documents viewed by the FT.

When the documents were shown, Tolentino did not want to comment on whether he had sent his law firms, but he did agree that what he had signed with them was in agreement. “However, it has no legal connection as it is a scanned copy,” Tolentin said. “It simply came to our notice then [for documents]”.

Following that request, EY received information that it had confirmed that there were 1.9 billion euros in the banks, according to the audit report of the Big Four company seen by FT.

But by June, with special pressure from the KPMG auditor, EY was asking the Philippine banks themselves to prove that the money existed. In the week of June 15, EY received its response: the BDO and the BPI said they were “false” statements prior to the existence of the money.

Fight with the banks

Among the emails he received with Marsal in the following days is an account of the “Tolentino” which showed that they were making a hard effort to resolve the situation.

A member of the BPI’s legal team was called and the bank’s management said it would place a probe on an employee who communicated with EY, according to an email. He also said the email had a meeting with a member of the BDO board.

The BDO told FT that it was unaware of the “alleged” meeting with emails or a board member. BPI and BPI, which did not respond to requests for comment, previously said they had no contact with Wirecard.

Shortly after the Wirecard crashed, Philippine authorities launched an investigation into the German group’s local business partners and agents. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told the FT last year that they had called Tolentino to “clarify” the matter. Tolentino and the banks are also immersed in legal struggles.

The fleeting 1.9 million euros was not the only link Wirecard had with the Philippines. There was a payment processor, PayEasy Solutions, which was directed by a former Wirecard employee and later appeared as a hoax.

Political intentions

Tolentino is no stranger to the government business. When he ran for mayor in 2016, he was accepted by Duterte, with whom he shares a university alma mater and brotherhood in 2016, and lost his southern island in a city in Mindanao. Most recently, he had a brief stint as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Transportation.

Authorities are investigating the fall of the Wirecard, which has been caught in a storm over the Tolentino Sinopharm vaccine. He told FT that authorities had questioned him about the smuggled owners and that his fishing business had inspected the crab containers, but found nothing. According to him, “it’s a waste [his] time ”.

Dutert himself has apologized for being allowed to “use compassion” for receiving a Sinopharm jab authorized from a special lot provided by Beijing this month.

Whether Covid will be a tough issue in Philippine politics next year or not, Tolentino wants to get involved. “Political Beliefs” is one of his three Facebook pages, along with free legal consultations and “jokes”.

The lawyer said he will be first on the list of candidates for a political organization linked to Pacquiao, as he is considered a strong contender to run for president next year.

The victories of the legendary boxer could still see Tolentino get a seat in the country’s House of Representatives.