Wirecard was a €24 billion German tech champion. Then €1.9 billion turned out not to exist — and the regulator had spent sixteen months protecting the company and investigating the reporters.
In February 2019 Germany’s financial regulator BaFin banned short selling of Wirecard shares and filed a criminal complaint against the Financial Times journalists who reported on the accounts. Sixteen months later the auditors asked two banks in the Philippines where the €1.9 billion in escrow was. The banks said the confirmation letters were fake. The money had never been there.
Chief operating officer Jan Marsalek disappeared and has not been found. The criminal trial has been running since December 2022 without a verdict.
Sources: Wirecard insolvency filings, BaFin statements, SEC and DOJ releases, the reports on the Philippine banks, and the Bundestag inquiry.
Chapters:
00:00 The Company That Was Too Good
02:41 The Man Who Read the Numbers
04:54 The Regulator Picks a Side
07:03 The Money That Was Never There
09:06 What Is Still Missing
The regulator went after the people who found the hole instead of the hole. Where else is that happening right now? Tell me in the comments.
#Wirecard #FinancialFraud #MillionMarkers
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