The Justice Department is examining whether scandal-plagued German payment company Wirecard AG played a critical role in an alleged $100 million bank-fraud conspiracy connected to an online marijuana marketplace, the Wall Street Journal reported. Two businessmen have already been charged in the alleged fraud, accused of conspiring with third-party payment processors and others to trick U.S. banks into approving credit-card payments for marijuana products. The men were able to do this, prosecutors said, by using phony companies with accounts at offshore merchant banks that in turn earned steep fees off the transactions. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office and the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are examining whether Wirecard played a role in the alleged conspiracy by serving as both a payment processor and an offshore merchant bank. The authorities are also considering the possible role of several former or current top Wirecard executives. The attention from U.S. authorities adds to the myriad legal woes facing Wirecard, which was once more valuable than any German bank, including Deutsche Bank AG. The company has rapidly unraveled following revelations last month that more than $2 billion it had claimed to have may never have existed.
