MANILA (BLOOMBERG) - The Philippines is investigating whether a former Asian executive of the disgraced German payments firm Wirecard AG has died, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday (Aug 7).

He said the Justice Department is verifying if the person named "Christopher Reinhard Bauer" who reportedly died last week is the same person as the ex-Wirecard official who is part of an ongoing investigation into fraud. Also part of the investigation is to find out the cause of death, Guevarra said.

"We are now securing a copy of the deceased's death certificate, burial permit, and other relevant records in order to confirm if he is the same person subject of the ongoing investigation," Guevarra said.

He said the Justice Department has been looking at an inward remittance to Bauer's account from Wirecard Asia in 2015, without giving more details.

Wirecard filed for bankruptcy in June after acknowledging that €1.9 billion (S$3.08 billion) it had listed as assets probably didn't exist.

The Financial Times on Thursday reported on the death of Bauer, linking him and his Manila-based PayEasy Solutions to a probe involving Wirecard's partner businesses. The newspaper said that Bauer's lawyer hadn't immediately responded to a request for comment.

A contact number listed on PayEasy's website could not be reached.