Singapore-based Wirecard whistleblower building platform for others like him

THE whistleblower who helped expose one of Europe’s most high-profile fraud cases is developing a platform to aid the reporting of wrongdoing at companies.

Pav Gill, a former senior legal counsel at disgraced fintech giant Wirecard, in July co-founded a Singapore company called Confide.

The platform it is developing is designed to safeguard whistleblowers’ anonymity, and help companies ensure they are compliant in their handling of possible misconduct.

Gill is building the product just as regulators around the world recognise the key role that whistleblowers play in exposing corporate scandals.

In the EU, companies are rushing to comply with a new directive by year-end that imposes certain standards on how reports of misconduct are treated.

“Since the Wirecard case happened, I have been always asking myself: ‘Why me? What’s the bigger purpose in exposing this company?’” said Gill. He was adamant in staying off the typical whistleblower-turned-consultant route.

Then the EU whistleblowing directive came out.

“At these keynote events, people were asking me what I was doing with my life. That’s when I realised I could start a tech-based solution to address a lot of issues in the industry,” the 40-year-old Singaporean told The Business Times.

Gill has been credited with helping the Financial Times expose Wirecard’s massive fraud. The German payments company collapsed into insolvency in June 2020, after admitting that some 1.9 billion euros (S$2.8 billion) was missing from its accounts.

But the whistleblowing experience was a traumatic event. Gill was repeatedly stonewalled by company executives and had to deal with threats to his life, by his account. He hopes to draw on his experience, and the security and privacy lessons he wishes he had known before his Wirecard days.

Before submitting a report, for instance, users of Confide’s platform are educated on their options under existing regulations, and the risks they should be aware of when blowing the whistle. They are allowed to download their report and records of how the case was managed.

“If he or she feels that the case has not been dealt with appropriately, the whistleblower can then use these to objectively go to the media or relevant regulatory authority,” said Gill.

Confide is working to launch a beta version by October. The company plans to raise its first round of funding for the development.

The company’s other co-founder, Ryan Dougherty, is a former Grab Financial executive who was most recently head of risk and compliance at crypto company Zipmex.

Gill is chief executive of Confide, while Dougherty is chief product officer.

Gill hopes whistleblowing can eventually play a larger role in keeping companies on their toes.

“A lot of times, shareholders have no idea what their companies are doing, and how they are messing about. But in reserved matters under the shareholders’ agreement, shareholders have a right to access of information, such as the financials and management accounts,” he said.

“What I really want to push for is to add whistleblowing reports, because that would really freak management out. It acts as a stick to make sure that companies take this seriously.”