Acquisition of Chennai firm at centre of fraud investigation

Mumbai: Alleged fraud in the acquisition of a Chennai-based firm has come to haunt Frankfurt-listed Wirecard AG. The German payment processing firm’s shares have slumped almost 50 per cent on reports that its acquisition of the Chennai -based Hermes I Tickets Private Ltd being investigated by authorities in Singapore for allegations of money laundering and document forgery.

Wirecard, a star in the German stock market for more than a decade, came under selling pressure after a series of reports of a possible fraud in Indian operations.